Best States for Lodging Managers: California Leads Overall as Hawaii and New Jersey Top Pay

For lodging managers, LaborCove’s top‑ranked states combine very different profiles for pay, employment counts, and Geography Scores. The national median annual salary for this occupation is $69,250, and several of the top 10 states land well above that benchmark. At the same time, national employment of 42,620 and a projected national growth rate of 3.4% provide broad context but do not describe any individual state’s trajectory. Within the top 10, California ranks #1 with the highest LaborCove Geography Score among the listed states and the largest reported employment count, but not the highest median salary. Hawaii, New Jersey, Washington, and Massachusetts all show higher median salaries than California but rank below it in the overall Geography Score ordering. Florida and Texas, by contrast, have median salaries close to or below the national median yet appear in the top 10 based on LaborCove’s scoring. These contrasts show that LaborCove’s rankings capture more than a single metric. States with relatively high salaries, such as Hawaii and New Jersey, can have smaller supplied employment counts than California and Florida while still appearing high in the list. Meanwhile, mid‑range salaries combined with larger employment totals in places like California and Florida correspond with strong but numerically distinct Geography Scores.

At the national level, lodging managers have a median annual salary of $69,250. This figure serves as a benchmark for comparing state‑level pay in the LaborCove rankings. National employment for lodging managers stands at 42,620. LaborCove also reports a national projected employment growth rate of 3.4% for this occupation, which applies to the country as a whole rather than to any individual state or metro. Because the national figures are not broken down by state, they are best used as context alongside the Geography Scores and state‑specific salaries and employment counts that drive the top‑10 ranking in this Insight.

California holds the #1 position in LaborCove’s state rankings for lodging managers, with a Geography Score of 68.43. Its median annual salary is $76,950, which is higher than the national median of $69,250. California also has an employment count of 5,070 for lodging managers. Within the top 10, this is the largest reported employment figure, and it exceeds Florida’s 4,790 and Texas’s 3,900. Although several states in the top 10 show higher median salaries than California, California’s combination of a higher‑than‑national median salary and the largest reported employment total among these states aligns with its top Geography Score in the LaborCove results.

Several states in the top 10 offer higher median salaries for lodging managers than California but have lower Geography Scores. Hawaii reports a median salary of $114,070, New Jersey $107,720, Washington $101,350, and Massachusetts $97,350. All of these values are above California’s $76,950 median. Hawaii, with its $114,070 median salary, has the highest reported median salary among the listed states, yet it ranks #5 with a Geography Score of 54.27. New Jersey’s $107,720 median places it at #6 with a Geography Score of 54.17, and Washington’s $101,350 median corresponds to a #9 ranking and a Geography Score of 50.57. Massachusetts records a median salary of $97,350 and ranks #2 with a Geography Score of 62.87. These results show that a higher median salary does not automatically translate into a higher Geography Score ranking. For example, Hawaii’s $114,070 median salary is higher than Massachusetts’s $97,350 and New York’s $79,460, but Hawaii ranks below both states in the LaborCove ordering.

Florida ranks #3 among the states listed, with a Geography Score of 56.11. Its median salary for lodging managers is $69,120, which is slightly below the national median of $69,250. Florida’s employment count is 4,790, which is less than California’s 5,070 but higher than New York’s 2,880. Texas appears at #8 with a Geography Score of 50.75 and a median salary of $62,000. This salary is lower than the national median of $69,250 and lower than Florida’s $69,120. Texas, however, has an employment count of 3,900, which exceeds New York’s 2,880. Taken together, Florida and Texas illustrate that states with mid‑range or below‑national salaries can still achieve solid positions in the top 10 when combined with the employment counts and other elements reflected in LaborCove’s Geography Scores.

New York holds the #4 spot with a Geography Score of 55.50 and a median salary of $79,460, which is above both the national median of $69,250 and California’s $76,950. Its employment count of 2,880 is smaller than California’s 5,070 and Florida’s 4,790. Colorado ranks #10 with a Geography Score of 49.44. Its median salary of $91,750 is higher than California’s $76,950 and New York’s $79,460, and it reports an employment count of 1,100, which is lower than New York’s 2,880. Alaska, at #7 with a Geography Score of 50.99 and a median salary of $80,060, does not have a supplied employment count in this dataset. Its median salary is higher than California’s $76,950 and New York’s $79,460, while its Geography Score places it between New Jersey and Texas in the LaborCove rankings.

The top 10 states for lodging managers in this Insight present varied combinations of pay, employment counts, and Geography Scores. California pairs the highest reported employment count in the list with a median salary above the national level. Hawaii and New Jersey stand out for their high median salaries, even though they rank below some states with lower pay. Florida and Texas show that mid‑range or lower‑than‑national salaries can still coincide with meaningful positions in the top 10 when viewed through LaborCove’s composite scoring. Meanwhile, states such as Massachusetts, New York, Colorado, and Alaska illustrate that strong salaries can correspond to a wide range of Geography Scores and employment counts. For lodging managers considering relocation or evaluating regional options, these rankings provide a structured way to compare states on concrete labor‑market measures. They are most useful when combined with individual preferences and additional research that extend beyond the scope of the LaborCove data presented here.

LaborCove’s state rankings for lodging managers rely on authoritative U.S. labor‑market data and the LaborCove Geography Score. For this article, national employment, national median annual salary, and the national projected employment growth rate refer to the occupation of lodging managers (SOC 11-9081). The underlying OEWS observations used in this analysis refer to May 2025; the 2026 report year is the product year, not the data‑collection date. Geographic results are based on the supplied median annual salary, employment counts, and LaborCove Geography Scores for each state. The Geography Score is LaborCove’s composite measure for comparing locations, but the specific weighting of individual metrics in that score is not disclosed here. Rankings in this article reflect the ordering of states by their Geography Score. National projected employment growth of 3.4% is a national occupational projection only. It is not a forecast for any specific state, and no state‑level or metro‑level growth rates are used or implied. Readers should interpret these rankings as one input among many and balance them with personal considerations such as preferred regions, employer type, and non‑work factors that fall outside the scope of this dataset.