Top Metro Areas for K–12 Education Administrators: New York Leads, High-Paying West Coast Hubs Follow

Across the top-ranked metros, LaborCove data shows a cluster of high median salaries that all sit above the national median, but they vary in both employment counts and Geography Scores. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ holds the #1 rank with the largest reported employment count among the listed metros and the highest Geography Score. Several California metros also appear in the top 10, but their ranks differ even though their median salaries are all well above the national median. For education administrators, this means that the most appealing metro based on LaborCove’s rankings will depend on how you weigh salary levels, metro scale (as reflected in employment counts), and overall Geography Scores, rather than on pay alone.

At the national level, education administrators in kindergarten through secondary schools have a median annual salary of $105,870. National employment stands at 328,330 workers in this occupation. The national projected employment growth rate for this occupation is –1.5%, indicating a projected decline in employment nationally. This projection provides overall context for the field but does not specify how any individual metro will change over time.

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ ranks #1 in LaborCove’s metro list for education administrators, kindergarten through secondary, with a Geography Score of 84.65. Its median salary of $163,210 is above the national median of $105,870. New York-Newark-Jersey City also has an employment count of 20,920 for this occupation, which is the largest reported employment figure among the ten listed metros. This combination of the highest Geography Score in the top 10 and the largest employment count distinguishes it from the other metros in LaborCove’s supplied data.

Several top-10 metros show median salaries that are well above the national median of $105,870. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA has a median salary of $174,260, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA reports $165,520, and Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT reports $171,910. Despite these high pay levels, their Geography Scores are lower than the New York-Newark-Jersey City score of 84.65. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue has a Geography Score of 59.13, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara comes in at 58.38, and Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury holds a score of 52.26. This illustrates that a higher median salary within this group does not necessarily correspond to the highest overall LaborCove ranking or Geography Score. Employment counts in these metros are also smaller than in New York-Newark-Jersey City. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue has 3,360 employed education administrators, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara has 1,730, and Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury reports 1,170, compared with 20,920 in New York-Newark-Jersey City.

California features prominently in LaborCove’s top-10 metro list for this occupation, with four metros: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, and San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad. All four report median salaries higher than the national median of $105,870. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim reports a median salary of $161,590 and an employment count of 10,310, with a Geography Score of 65.65. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont has a median salary of $160,820, employment of 3,480, and a Geography Score of 57.27. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad reports a median salary of $163,200, employment of 2,370, and a Geography Score of 53.73. Among the California metros listed, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim has the largest employment count at 10,310 and also the highest Geography Score at 65.65. However, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, which has a Geography Score of 58.38 and employment of 1,730, reports a higher median salary of $165,520 than Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim’s $161,590.

Several top-10 metros pair relatively large employment counts with LaborCove rankings in the upper half of the list. New York-Newark-Jersey City has 20,920 employed education administrators, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim has 10,310, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN reports 11,050, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV has 7,510. In terms of Geography Scores, New York-Newark-Jersey City leads this group at 84.65. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim holds a Geography Score of 65.65, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is at 54.13, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria has a score of 51.24. Median salaries across these metros all exceed the national median of $105,870. New York-Newark-Jersey City reports $163,210, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim reports $161,590, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin reports $128,780, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria reports $134,490.

Within the top 10 metros, LaborCove Geography Scores range from 51.24 to 84.65. New York-Newark-Jersey City sits at 84.65, while the lowest score among the listed metros is Washington-Arlington-Alexandria at 51.24. This spread shows that metros with similar median salaries or employment counts can still have meaningfully different Geography Scores. For example, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue has a median salary of $174,260 and a Geography Score of 59.13, while San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont has a median salary of $160,820 and a Geography Score of 57.27. Because the internal weighting that produces the Geography Score is not disclosed, these rankings are best viewed as a high-level summary of how each metro performs within LaborCove’s framework, rather than as a guarantee that a particular metro is the right choice for every education administrator.

LaborCove uses authoritative U.S. labor-market data for occupation 11-9032 (education administrators, kindergarten through secondary) and applies its LaborCove Geography Score to compare metro areas. National context in this article reflects a median annual salary of $105,870, 328,330 employed workers, and a projected national employment growth rate of –1.5% for this occupation. The underlying occupational employment and wage observations refer to May 2025; the stated 2026 report year is a product year, not the OEWS observation year. Geographic analysis in this Insight is limited to the supplied metrics: median annual salary, employment counts, metro rankings, and LaborCove Geography Scores. The national projected growth rate is a national projection only and is not used to infer or assign any projected growth to individual metro areas. LaborCove’s metro rankings synthesize these inputs through the proprietary Geography Score. Because the internal weighting of each input is not supplied, this article does not attribute a metro’s rank to any single factor. Readers should consider these results alongside their own priorities, such as preferred regions or non-labor-market factors that are outside the scope of this data.