Where Education Administrators Earn Most: Top U.S. Metros Ranked by Pay, Scale, and LaborCove Score

Across the country, education administrators, all other, have a national median salary of $95,200 and national employment of 55,130 positions. A national projected employment growth rate of 2.5% provides overall context for the occupation, but the metro results highlight how individual markets vary in pay, scale, and their LaborCove rankings. Among the top 10 metros in LaborCove’s rankings, Washington‑Arlington‑Alexandria leads the list with the highest Geography Score while also sitting above the national median on salary. Los Angeles‑Long Beach‑Anaheim and New York‑Newark‑Jersey City both have larger employment counts than most other top‑ranked metros, but at salary levels that differ from each other and from the national benchmark. Several California markets and Baltimore‑Columbia‑Towson combine relatively high salaries with mid‑range employment counts, while Oklahoma City and Huntsville appear in the top 10 despite missing employment figures. Overall, the data shows that the “best” metros for this occupation are not defined by a single metric. Washington‑Arlington‑Alexandria tops the ranking without having the largest employment total. Modesto and Visalia post the highest salaries in the top 10 list but trail several other metros on Geography Score. For career planning, this means the LaborCove rankings are best read as a structured comparison of trade‑offs across salary, employment, and the composite Geography Score, rather than as a single‑factor list.

Nationally, education administrators, all other, have a median annual salary of $95,200 and employment of 55,130. The supplied projected employment growth rate for this occupation is 2.5% at the national level. These national benchmarks provide a reference point for interpreting the metro‑level results. When a metro’s median salary is above or below $95,200, it shows how that market’s typical pay compares to the national midpoint for the occupation. Employment counts for individual metros represent only a portion of the 55,130 national total, highlighting that the occupation is distributed across many areas rather than concentrated in a single hub. It is important to note that the 2.5% projected employment growth rate applies to the occupation across the United States as a whole. The data here does not include metro‑specific growth projections, so this article does not assign that growth rate, or any other projected rate, to individual metros.

Washington‑Arlington‑Alexandria, DC‑VA‑MD‑WV holds Rank #1 with a LaborCove Geography Score of 65.07. Its median annual salary of $132,400 is above the national median of $95,200, and its employment count of 2,600 places it among the larger markets in the top 10 list. Compared with other high‑score metros, Washington’s salary stands above New York‑Newark‑Jersey City’s $90,990 and Los Angeles‑Long Beach‑Anaheim’s $83,990, while remaining below the very highest‑paying metros in the top 10 such as Modesto and Visalia. Employment‑wise, Washington’s 2,600 positions are lower than Los Angeles’s 3,940 but higher than Baltimore‑Columbia‑Towson’s 1,090 and San Jose‑Sunnyvale‑Santa Clara’s 1,030 within the supplied data. The combination of a Geography Score of 65.07, a salary level above the national median, and a mid‑to‑upper‑range employment count among these metros distinguishes Washington‑Arlington‑Alexandria in the LaborCove results, even though it does not have either the single highest salary or the largest employment count in the group.

Los Angeles‑Long Beach‑Anaheim, CA is Rank #2 with the highest employment count in the top 10 at 3,940 and a LaborCove Geography Score of 61.83. Its median salary of $83,990 is below the national median of $95,200. New York‑Newark‑Jersey City, NY‑NJ ranks #3 with employment of 3,130, a median salary of $90,990, and a Geography Score of 61.05. Comparing these two large employment centers, Los Angeles has a larger employment count at 3,940 compared with New York’s 3,130. However, New York’s median salary of $90,990 is higher than Los Angeles’s $83,990, and both metros have median salaries below the $95,200 national median. In terms of ranking, Los Angeles’s Geography Score of 61.83 is slightly higher than New York’s 61.05, which places Los Angeles one position ahead. Washington‑Arlington‑Alexandria’s employment of 2,600 is smaller than both Los Angeles and New York, yet Washington ranks first. This illustrates that in LaborCove’s scoring, the top‑ranked metro is not simply the one with the largest employment count among the metros listed.

Several metros in the top 10 have median salaries well above the national median of $95,200 but appear lower in the LaborCove ranking order. Modesto, CA (Rank #7) has a median salary of $150,500 and a Geography Score of 49.96, with employment of 90. Visalia, CA (Rank #9) posts an even higher median salary of $157,490 alongside employment of 80 and a Geography Score of 48.56. Baltimore‑Columbia‑Towson, MD (Rank #6) has a median salary of $128,410, which is higher than Washington‑Arlington‑Alexandria’s $132,400 only when compared to other figures below it but in absolute terms is numerically lower than $150,500 in Modesto and $157,490 in Visalia. Baltimore’s employment count of 1,090 is higher than Modesto’s 90 and Visalia’s 80, while its Geography Score of 51.22 exceeds both Modesto’s 49.96 and Visalia’s 48.56. San Francisco‑Oakland‑Fremont, CA (Rank #4) has a median salary of $103,990, employment of 2,010, and a Geography Score of 54.99. These results highlight that the metros with the highest salaries in the top 10, Modesto and Visalia, do not occupy the top spots in LaborCove’s rankings. By contrast, San Francisco and Baltimore sit higher in the ranking order than Modesto and Visalia despite having lower median salaries than those two metros, which underscores that Geography Score reflects more than salary level alone.

Oklahoma City, OK holds Rank #5 with a Geography Score of 52.15 and a median salary of $120,270. Employment data for Oklahoma City is not supplied in this dataset, so it cannot be directly compared on job counts with other metros. Huntsville, AL appears at Rank #8 with a Geography Score of 48.73 and a median salary of $100,600, but its employment figure is also not provided. On pay, Oklahoma City’s median salary of $120,270 is above the national median of $95,200 and above Los Angeles‑Long Beach‑Anaheim’s $83,990 and New York‑Newark‑Jersey City’s $90,990. Huntsville’s median salary of $100,600 is higher than the national median as well, and it is higher than Los Angeles’s $83,990 while remaining below Oklahoma City’s $120,270 and below the highest‑paying metros in the top 10 such as Modesto and Visalia. Because employment counts are missing for both Oklahoma City and Huntsville, the analysis for these metros focuses on how their median salaries and Geography Scores compare with other top‑ranked locations, rather than on employment‑based comparisons.

San Jose‑Sunnyvale‑Santa Clara, CA is Rank #10 with a Geography Score of 48.33, a median salary of $99,990, and employment of 1,030. Its pay level is above the national median of $95,200 but below Washington‑Arlington‑Alexandria’s $132,400 and Baltimore‑Columbia‑Towson’s $128,410. In terms of employment within the supplied top 10 metros, Los Angeles‑Long Beach‑Anaheim has the largest count at 3,940, followed by New York‑Newark‑Jersey City with 3,130. Washington‑Arlington‑Alexandria’s 2,600 and San Francisco‑Oakland‑Fremont’s 2,010 form another group with four‑digit employment counts. Baltimore‑Columbia‑Towson’s 1,090 and San Jose’s 1,030 round out the metros in the list with more than 1,000 reported positions, while Modesto and Visalia have smaller employment counts of 90 and 80, respectively. This distribution shows that within the top 10, the larger employment counts are not confined to a single metro area or a single region. Several metros combine employment above 1,000 with Geography Scores spanning from Washington’s 65.07 down to San Jose’s 48.33, reflecting a spread of rankings even among markets with relatively higher reported job counts in this dataset.

LaborCove’s metro rankings for education administrators, all other (11-9039) are based on authoritative U.S. labor‑market data combined with the proprietary LaborCove Geography Score. For this article, national salary and employment figures, along with metro‑level median annual salaries, employment counts, and Geography Scores, are drawn from Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) observations with a reference period of May 2025. The report year 2026 identifies the product year, not the OEWS observation year. National projected employment growth of 2.5% is a separate, occupation‑level projection and is used only as national context. No state or metro projected growth rates are supplied, and none are inferred. The Geography Score is LaborCove’s composite measure that supports the ranking order for the metros shown. The internal weighting of salary, employment, and any other factors in that score is not disclosed in this dataset, so this article does not attribute a metro’s rank to any single metric. Instead, we report the supplied rankings and compare metros using only directly available values. Users should interpret these rankings alongside their own preferences around location, role type, and non‑labor‑market considerations that are outside the scope of this data.