Best States for Mechanical Engineers in 2026: California Leads, New Mexico Tops Pay

The 2026 CareerGPS Pro rankings for mechanical engineers show that no single state leads on every dimension. California holds the top overall rank with a high median salary and one of the largest employment counts in the top 10. Michigan, while ranked second overall, has the largest reported employment count among these states but a lower median salary than several other top-ranked locations. New Mexico illustrates that very high compensation does not automatically translate into the top CareerGPS ranking, while Texas balances a six-figure median salary with a five-figure employment count. Several other states cluster near or somewhat above the national median salary, but differ in their employment counts and Geography Scores, highlighting that the “best” state depends on how each engineer weighs pay, concentration of jobs, and the composite CareerGPS Pro score.

Nationally, mechanical engineers earn a median annual salary of $104,110, with 296,810 workers employed in this occupation. The projected national employment growth rate for mechanical engineers is 9.1%. Within the top 10 states, several have median salaries above the national median. California’s median salary is $130,900, Colorado’s is $124,430, Massachusetts’ is $119,300, Maryland’s is $122,870, Texas’ is $112,410, and Washington’s is $110,430, all above the $104,110 national figure. Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have median salaries of $104,890, $99,100, and $97,920 respectively, with Michigan slightly above the national median and Ohio and Pennsylvania below it. New Mexico stands out with the highest reported median salary in this group at $157,710, well above the national median. These comparisons show that every state in the top 10 either matches or is within a relatively modest distance of the national median salary, with several substantially above it. However, the national projected growth rate of 9.1% applies to the occupation overall, not to any specific state in this list.

California ranks #1 in the CareerGPS Pro state results for mechanical engineers, with a median salary of $130,900 and an employment count of 30,530. Michigan ranks #2, with a median salary of $104,890 and an employment count of 34,630. Among the top 10 states, Michigan has the largest reported employment count at 34,630, while California’s 30,530 is the second-largest in this group based on the values supplied. California’s median salary of $130,900 is higher than Michigan’s $104,890 and also higher than the national median of $104,110. The Geography Scores underline how these two high-employment states perform in the CareerGPS framework. California’s CareerGPS Geography Score is 71.80, higher than Michigan’s 55.66, and California’s ranking at #1 places it ahead of Michigan’s #2 position in the 2026 results.

New Mexico ranks #3 overall in the CareerGPS Pro state rankings for mechanical engineers. It has the highest reported median salary among the top 10 states at $157,710, which is higher than both California’s $130,900 and the national median of $104,110. At the same time, New Mexico’s employment count of 2,710 is smaller than the employment counts reported for California and Michigan. New Mexico’s CareerGPS Geography Score of 54.63 is slightly below Michigan’s 55.66 despite New Mexico’s higher median salary, and it ranks one position below Michigan in the overall list. This contrast shows that a state can offer very high median pay yet still rank lower than another state with a lower salary when considering the full CareerGPS Geography Score. Because New Mexico’s employment count is smaller than those of several other top states, its #3 ranking in the CareerGPS Pro results highlights that different combinations of salary, employment, and other scored factors can still produce a strong overall position in the rankings.

Texas ranks #4 with a median salary of $112,410 and an employment count of 22,080. Its salary is above the national median, and its employment count is larger than those of Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington, New Mexico, Ohio, and Pennsylvania in the top 10 list. Colorado (#5) has a median salary of $124,430 and employment of 7,190. Massachusetts (#6) has a median salary of $119,300 and employment of 7,680. Maryland (#7) reports a median salary of $122,870 and employment of 6,550. Washington (#8) has a median salary of $110,430 and employment of 8,240. All five states have median salaries above the national median of $104,110. In terms of CareerGPS Geography Scores, Colorado’s 45.76 is slightly higher than Massachusetts’ 45.60, while Maryland’s 44.12 and Washington’s 40.46 trail those two. Texas, with a Geography Score of 53.10, ranks above Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Washington, and below New Mexico in the top 10 list.

Ohio ranks #9, with a median salary of $99,100 and an employment count of 14,390. Pennsylvania ranks #10, with a median salary of $97,920 and an employment count of 13,550. Both Ohio and Pennsylvania have median salaries below the national median of $104,110, and below the median salaries of the other eight states in the top 10. However, their employment counts are larger than those of New Mexico, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Washington within this grouping. On the CareerGPS Geography Score metric, Ohio’s score of 39.50 is slightly higher than Pennsylvania’s 38.84, which aligns with Ohio’s #9 rank compared with Pennsylvania’s #10. These results underscore that states can reach the top 10 even when their median salaries fall below the national figure, as long as their overall Geography Scores remain competitive within the full set of ranked states.

CareerGPS Pro builds these state rankings for mechanical engineers using authoritative labor-market data combined with the proprietary CareerGPS Geography Score. For each state, we consider the supplied median annual salary, employment count, and Geography Score, and then rank locations from strongest to weakest based on that composite measure. All projected employment growth figures cited here are national occupational projections for mechanical engineers and do not represent state-level or metro-level projections. Geographic projected growth rates are not supplied. Because individual priorities differ, engineers should view the CareerGPS Geography Score and rankings as structured inputs to their decisions, alongside personal factors such as preferred industries, family considerations, and risk tolerance, which are outside the scope of this dataset.