Best States for Computer and Information Systems Managers: California, New York, and Massachusetts Stand Out for Pay and Scale

Across the top 10 states for computer and information systems managers, LaborCove’s data highlights a mix of high salaries, sizable employment counts, and strong Geography Scores, without a single state leading on every metric at once. California ranks first overall with the highest Geography Score and the largest employment count among these states, while several others—such as Massachusetts, New York, and Washington—show median salaries above $209,000 but lower employment counts than California and Texas. The national median salary and employment figures provide a baseline to understand just how elevated both pay and employment can be in these leading states, while the 15.2% projected national growth rate offers broader context for the occupation overall.

California ranks #1 in LaborCove’s state list for computer and information systems managers, with a LaborCove Geography Score of 87.48. Its median annual salary for the occupation is $218,290, which is higher than the national median of $175,140. California also has 94,720 people employed in this role, which is the largest employment count among the top 10 states and higher than the employment count in any other individual state listed here. That state-level figure is smaller than the national employment of 670,570, underscoring the size of the overall U.S. market relative to even the top-ranked state. Taken together, California’s top rank, high median salary, and the largest state employment count in this set distinguish it from the rest of the field in LaborCove’s current state comparisons.

New York holds the #2 rank with a LaborCove Geography Score of 70.14. The state’s median annual salary for computer and information systems managers is $214,300, which is higher than the national median of $175,140 but slightly lower than California’s $218,290. New York’s employment count of 48,050 in this occupation is lower than California’s 94,720 but higher than Massachusetts’ 24,910 within the top 3 states. This mix of a high Geography Score, a salary level well above the national median, and a mid-range employment count among the top-ranked states shows how New York contributes to the upper tier of LaborCove’s rankings without matching California on every measure.

Several top-10 states post median salaries above $199,000 for computer and information systems managers. Massachusetts, ranked #3 with a LaborCove Geography Score of 63.06, has a median salary of $214,960, which is higher than both New York at $214,300 and the national median of $175,140. Washington, at rank #6 with a Geography Score of 56.90, reports a median salary of $209,370, again above the national median. Colorado, ranked #8 with a Geography Score of 51.49, has a median salary of $199,420, which also exceeds the national median. At the same time, these three states all have smaller employment counts than California and Texas. Massachusetts employs 24,910 computer and information systems managers, Washington 16,960, and Colorado 11,510, each below California’s 94,720 and Texas’s 73,060. This contrast illustrates that high state rankings and strong salaries can coincide with a range of employment levels among the top 10 states.

Texas and New Jersey occupy the #4 and #5 positions in LaborCove’s rankings, with Geography Scores of 60.81 and 60.68 respectively. Texas has a median annual salary of $171,530 for computer and information systems managers, which is slightly below the national median of $175,140. However, its employment count of 73,060 is higher than New York’s 48,050 and higher than any other state in the top 10 except California’s 94,720. New Jersey’s median salary is $203,460, higher than both the national median and Texas’s $171,530. New Jersey employs 34,470 people in this occupation, which is lower than Texas’s 73,060 but higher than Colorado’s 11,510, illustrating how New Jersey combines a strong salary position with a mid-range employment count within the top-10 set.

The remaining top-10 states—Virginia, Illinois, and North Carolina—show how similar ranks can mask meaningful differences in salaries and employment counts. Virginia ranks #7 with a LaborCove Geography Score of 52.81 and a median annual salary of $201,490, which is higher than the national median of $175,140. Its employment count of 17,550 is lower than New Jersey’s 34,470 but higher than Colorado’s 11,510 within this group. Illinois, ranked #9 with a Geography Score of 44.96, has a median salary of $171,730, which is slightly below the national median, and an employment count of 31,680. North Carolina, at rank #10 with a Geography Score of 44.25, reports a median salary of $172,860 and employment of 25,650. Both Illinois and North Carolina have median salaries below California’s $218,290 and Massachusetts’ $214,960 but differ from each other on both salary and employment, underscoring the range of outcomes within the lower half of the top-10 list.

LaborCove’s state rankings for computer and information systems managers are based on authoritative labor-market data and the LaborCove Geography Score, which combines multiple factors into a single comparative result. For this article, we use national context (a median annual salary of $175,140, 670,570 employed nationally, and a national projected employment growth rate of 15.2%) alongside the top 10 state results for salary, employment, and Geography Scores. Projected growth is a national projection for the occupation and is not a forecast for any individual state. OEWS-based occupation observations used in LaborCove’s modeling refer to May 2025. Report year 2026 is the product and publication cycle, not the underlying observation date. Because the internal weighting behind the LaborCove Geography Score is proprietary, this article focuses on the observable outputs: rankings, scores, salaries, and employment counts. Readers should consider these rankings as one evidence-based input alongside their own career goals and personal constraints when evaluating potential locations.