Best States for ‘All Other’ Engineers in 2026: California Leads, High-Paying New Mexico Follows

Across the top ten states for Engineers, all other, LaborCove’s data shows that no single measure—salary, employment, or Geography Score—fully explains the rankings. Some states combine high pay with large employment counts, while others rank highly despite smaller workforces. California stands out for its combination of the highest Geography Score and the largest supplied state employment count. Several other states, including New Mexico and Alabama, have higher median salaries than California but still rank below it overall. Nationally, the occupation pays a median of $122,930, and most of the top ten states have higher median salaries than this national benchmark, while Texas is an example of a top-ranked state where the median salary is below the national figure. The following sections break down these patterns in more detail to help engineers interpret how state-level differences in pay, employment, and Geography Scores might align with their own priorities.

Nationally, Engineers, all other earn a median annual salary of $122,930 in 2026, with 154,070 workers in this occupation. National employment for this occupation is projected to grow 2.1%, providing context for how states fit into the broader picture. Within the top ten states, many have median salaries above the national median. For example, California’s median salary of $130,850, New Mexico’s $162,070, and Virginia’s $148,160 all exceed the national figure. Alabama at $152,550, Maryland at $129,770, New Jersey at $132,450, Washington at $134,570, Massachusetts at $131,260, and Alaska at $142,390 are also above the national median. By contrast, Texas has a median salary of $115,810, which is below the national median of $122,930 despite ranking eighth in LaborCove’s Geography Score–based list. This illustrates that a strong overall ranking does not necessarily require a median salary above the national benchmark.

California ranks #1 among states for Engineers, all other, with a LaborCove Geography Score of 74.77. This is higher than any other state in the top ten, including New Mexico at 54.65 and Virginia at 52.92. California also has the largest supplied employment count among these top states, with 28,610 engineers in this occupation. This is larger than the employment counts reported for New Mexico (2,190), Virginia (5,060), Alabama (3,460), Maryland (7,340), New Jersey (4,540), Washington (3,580), Texas (10,820), Massachusetts (2,850), and Alaska (200). While California’s median salary of $130,850 is higher than the national median of $122,930, several other states in the top ten have even higher median salaries than California yet rank below it overall, underscoring that the Geography Score reflects more than salary alone.

New Mexico, ranked #2, has the highest median salary among the top ten at $162,070, which is higher than California’s $130,850. Alabama at rank #4 reports a median salary of $152,550, also higher than California’s median. Virginia, ranked #3, has a median salary of $148,160, which again exceeds California’s figure. Despite these higher salaries, New Mexico’s LaborCove Geography Score of 54.65, Virginia’s 52.92, and Alabama’s 49.39 are all lower than California’s 74.77. These three states also have smaller employment counts than California’s 28,610: New Mexico has 2,190, Virginia 5,060, and Alabama 3,460. Maryland, ranked #5, has a median salary of $129,770, which is slightly lower than California’s $130,850. However, Maryland’s employment count of 7,340 is higher than the employment counts of New Mexico, Alabama, Washington, Massachusetts, and Alaska, while remaining smaller than California’s and Texas’s counts.

New Jersey, Washington, and Texas occupy the middle of the top-ten ranking, at #6, #7, and #8 respectively, with Geography Scores tightly grouped between 46.93 and 47.76. New Jersey’s median salary is $132,450 and Washington’s is $134,570, both higher than California’s national benchmark comparison point of $122,930 and higher than California’s $130,850. Texas, by contrast, has a median salary of $115,810, which is below both the national median of $122,930 and California’s median. Employment counts in this middle group differ substantially. Texas has 10,820 employed Engineers, all other, which is a larger count than Maryland’s 7,340 and larger than the counts in New Mexico, Virginia, Alabama, New Jersey, Washington, Massachusetts, and Alaska. New Jersey’s employment of 4,540 is smaller than Virginia’s 5,060 but larger than that of New Mexico, Alabama, Washington, Massachusetts, and Alaska. Washington has 3,580 employed Engineers, all other, which is larger than Alabama’s 3,460 and larger than Massachusetts’s 2,850 and Alaska’s 200, but smaller than the employment counts for California, Texas, Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey.

Massachusetts and Alaska round out the top ten at ranks #9 and #10, with Geography Scores of 46.79 and 45.52 respectively, which are lower than the Geography Scores for all of the higher-ranked states. Massachusetts has a median salary of $131,260, which is higher than both the national median of $122,930 and California’s $130,850. Alaska’s median salary of $142,390 is also higher than both the national median and California’s median salary and exceeds the median salaries in Maryland ($129,770), New Jersey ($132,450), Texas ($115,810), Washington ($134,570), and Massachusetts ($131,260). In terms of employment counts, Massachusetts has 2,850 Engineers, all other, which is larger than the 200 reported for Alaska but smaller than the employment counts for California, New Mexico, Virginia, Alabama, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington, and Texas. Alaska’s employment count is the smallest among the top ten states listed here.

LaborCove’s rankings use authoritative labor-market data for the occupation “Engineers, all other” (17-2199). For 2026, we combine each state’s median annual salary, employment count, and a composite LaborCove Geography Score into a single ordered list. The Geography Score reflects LaborCove’s methodology for summarizing multiple labor-market indicators into one value. National statistics such as the 2.1% projected employment growth rate are provided as context for the occupation overall and are not applied to any individual state. Geographic projected growth data are not supplied, so we do not compare or infer growth rates for states. These rankings are a structured view of the labor market rather than a prediction of outcomes for any individual engineer. Users should consider how pay levels, employment counts, and Geography Scores intersect with their own career goals, mobility, and other personal factors that fall outside the scope of the LaborCove data.