Best States for Preschool and Daycare Administrators: California Ranks #1 While New York Leads on Pay

Across states, LaborCove’s rankings show that top locations for education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare, reflect different mixes of pay, employment, and overall Geography Scores. Nationally, the occupation’s median annual salary is $59,300 with employment of 73,660. Within that context, New York’s median salary of $96,810 stands well above both the national median and every other top-10 state salary reported here, yet New York ranks #2 overall with a LaborCove Geography Score of 68.37, just behind California’s top score of 68.58. California combines the highest Geography Score, the largest employment count among the listed states at 9,810, and a median salary of $67,100, which is also above the national median. Several other top-ranked states also sit above the national salary benchmark but differ in employment scale. New Jersey (#3) has a median salary of $78,770, higher than California’s, with employment of 2,900 and a Geography Score of 52.42. Massachusetts (#4) reports a median salary of $70,320 and employment of 2,260, with a Geography Score of 46.37. Alaska rounds out the top 10 with a median salary of $75,540 and the smallest reported employment among these states at 60, paired with a Geography Score of 39.91. Some states in the top 10 rank on the strength of their overall Geography Scores and employment counts even though their median salaries are closer to or below the national median. Florida (#5) shows employment of 5,980—second only to California among the listed states—and a median salary of $56,750, slightly below the national figure. Texas (#8) has employment of 5,480 with a median salary of $50,840, which is below the national median. Pennsylvania (#9) sits between those two on salary at $56,380 and reports 4,100 in employment. Washington (#6) pairs a median salary of $70,470 with employment of 1,560 and a Geography Score of 42.68. National occupational projections indicate a -2.5% change in employment for education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare. This projection applies to the occupation at the national level only and does not provide state-level or metro-level growth rates. Within that national context, the LaborCove Geography Scores and rankings help highlight how the top states currently compare on salary and employment for this occupation.

California and New York sit at the top of LaborCove’s rankings for education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare, but they do so with distinct profiles. California ranks #1 with a LaborCove Geography Score of 68.58, the highest among the states listed here. It also has the largest reported employment count in the group at 9,810 and a median annual salary of $67,100, which is above the national median of $59,300. New York ranks #2 with a Geography Score of 68.37 and employment of 3,950. Its median salary of $96,810 is higher than California’s $67,100 and the national benchmark, and it is also higher than the median salaries reported for every other top-10 state in this dataset. The small difference in Geography Score between California and New York shows that the top two states are close in overall ranking even though their salary and employment values differ.

Several top-10 states post median salaries that are well above the national figure of $59,300 for this occupation. New York leads this group with a median salary of $96,810, the highest reported among the top-ranked states. New Jersey follows with a median salary of $78,770, which is higher than California’s $67,100 and also above the national median. Alaska, at #10 in the rankings, reports a median salary of $75,540, which is higher than California’s and the national benchmark. Massachusetts and Washington also stand out on pay. Massachusetts has a median salary of $70,320, and Washington reports $70,470. Both figures are higher than the national median and higher than California’s $67,100. These comparisons show that several states with mid-table Geography Scores in the top 10 nonetheless exceed the salary levels of the #1-ranked state.

Employment counts differ considerably across the top states for education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare. California’s employment of 9,810 is the largest reported figure among the listed states. Florida’s employment of 5,980 and Texas’s 5,480 are the next-largest employment counts in this group, and both exceed New York’s 3,950. Pennsylvania sits in the middle of this range with 4,100 in employment, which is higher than Washington’s 1,560 and New Jersey’s 2,900. At the lower end of the scale, Alaska’s employment count of 60 is the smallest reported among the top-10 states, far below California’s 9,810. These gaps highlight how states with similar or even higher salaries can have very different employment scales for this occupation.

LaborCove’s Geography Scores show that overall rankings are not simply a mirror of salary levels. California holds the #1 rank with a Geography Score of 68.58 and a median salary of $67,100, while New York’s higher median salary of $96,810 corresponds to a slightly lower Geography Score of 68.37 and a #2 rank. New Jersey, with a median salary of $78,770 that is higher than California’s, holds the #3 rank with a Geography Score of 52.42, which is noticeably lower than the scores for California and New York. Alaska offers a median salary of $75,540, which is higher than California’s $67,100 and above the national median, but it is ranked #10 with a Geography Score of 39.91, the lowest in the top-10 set. These comparisons indicate that the Geography Score incorporates more than pay alone, since states with higher salaries can rank below states with lower salaries.

Some top-ranked states have median salaries that are closer to the national median of $59,300, even though they still appear in the LaborCove top 10. Florida, ranked #5, has a median salary of $56,750, which is slightly below the national median. Texas, at #8, reports a median salary of $50,840, lower than both the national median and Florida’s figure. Pennsylvania, ranked #9, reports a median salary of $56,380, which is below the national median and slightly below Florida’s $56,750. Nevada, ranked #7, has a median salary of $60,120, which is above the national median of $59,300. Employment for Nevada was not supplied in this dataset, so comparisons for that state are limited to salary and Geography Score. Together, these states show that top-10 rankings can include locations with salaries both above and below the national benchmark.

LaborCove’s state rankings for education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare draw on authoritative labor-market data combined with the proprietary LaborCove Geography Score. For this article, national and state-level salaries and employment counts are based on Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) observations with a reference period of May 2025. The ReportYear 2026 identifies the product year for this LaborCove release and is not the OEWS observation year. The LaborCove Geography Score summarizes how each state performs across multiple labor-market dimensions for this occupation. While higher scores and ranks indicate stronger measured characteristics in the underlying data, they should be considered alongside your own priorities, such as preferred regions, non-wage benefits, or career goals. National projected employment growth of -2.5% for this occupation is provided as a separate national-level projection and is not derived from OEWS. No state or metro growth projections are used in these rankings. Because LaborCove does not disclose the internal weight of each input to the Geography Score, this article reports the observed scores, ranks, salaries, and employment counts without assigning specific causal weight to any single factor.