Best States for Medical and Health Services Managers: California Ranks #1 as New York Offers Top Pay

Across the top 10 states in LaborCove’s rankings, medical and health services managers see a wide range of salary and employment conditions even before considering personal factors like location preferences or industry segment. The national median pay of $123,860 provides a useful reference point: some ranked states sit above this line, others below, yet all make the top 10 once LaborCove’s Geography Score is factored in. National employment for this occupation stands at 597,080, and the occupation’s projected national employment growth of 23.2% points to a growing role across the country as a whole. Because that growth figure is national, it does not indicate how fast any particular state in the top 10 might expand or change in the future. Within the rankings themselves, California holds the number‑one spot with the highest Geography Score and the largest employment count among the listed states, while New York ranks second with the highest median salary in the top 10. Other states such as Texas and Florida combine larger employment counts with lower Geography Scores than the top two states, underscoring that overall rank reflects more than any single metric taken alone.

Nationally, medical and health services managers have a median annual salary of $123,860. This figure serves as a benchmark for evaluating how the top‑ranked states compare on pay. Total national employment is 597,080, indicating the number of people working in this occupation across the United States in the underlying OEWS period. In addition, the occupation has a supplied projected national employment growth rate of 23.2%. This projection describes expected change at the national level only and does not provide state‑by‑state or city‑specific forecasts. Within this national context, the top 10 states in LaborCove’s ranking all show combinations of salary, employment, and Geography Scores that differentiate them from one another, even though they are evaluated for the same underlying occupation.

Among the top 10 states, New York reports the highest median salary for medical and health services managers at $164,120. Several other states in the ranking show median salaries above the national figure of $123,860, including California at $141,480, New Jersey at $145,650, Massachusetts at $134,360, Washington at $145,290, Hawaii at $147,630, Maryland at $131,810, and Colorado at $134,910. Texas, with a median salary of $114,150, and Florida, at $120,360, are the two states in the top 10 whose median salaries are below the national median. Despite this, both appear in the top 10 when ranked by LaborCove’s Geography Score. The comparison between New York and California illustrates that a higher salary does not automatically produce a higher overall rank. New York’s median salary of $164,120 is higher than California’s $141,480, yet California ranks #1 overall while New York ranks #2 according to the LaborCove Geography Score ordering.

Employment counts for medical and health services managers vary considerably among the top 10 states. California has 75,090 employed managers, which is the largest employment figure reported among these states. Texas follows with 58,420, giving these two states the highest employment counts within the top‑ranked group. Florida’s employment count of 42,700 is lower than both California’s 75,090 and Texas’s 58,420, yet it remains one of the higher employment totals among the listed states. New York shows 33,200 employed medical and health services managers, which is a smaller count than California, Texas, and Florida but still larger than several other states in the top 10. At the lower end of the employment range in this ranking, Hawaii reports 2,650 employed medical and health services managers, which is a smaller employment count than any of the other listed states. Washington, with 7,490, and Colorado, with 8,400, also represent relatively smaller employment counts when compared with the higher‑employment states such as California, Texas, and Florida.

LaborCove’s Geography Score provides a single numerical summary that underpins the state rankings. In this list, California has the highest Geography Score at 76.12 and therefore ranks #1. New York ranks #2 with a Geography Score of 69.47. Within the remainder of the top 10, scores range from 52.69 for Texas at rank #3 down to 43.11 for Colorado at rank #10. New Jersey, ranked #4, has a Geography Score of 52.37, which is slightly lower than Texas’s 52.69 despite New Jersey’s higher median salary. Massachusetts, Washington, Hawaii, Florida, and Maryland occupy ranks #5 through #9 with Geography Scores between 48.28 and 44.66. These comparisons demonstrate that a higher salary or a larger employment count does not always correspond to a higher Geography Score. For example, Florida’s Geography Score of 45.82 is lower than Maryland’s 44.66 Geography Score would suggest only if misread; in fact, Florida’s score of 45.82 is higher than Maryland’s 44.66, even though Florida’s median salary of $120,360 is below Maryland’s $131,810.

When salary, employment, and Geography Scores are viewed together, different types of trade‑offs within the top 10 become visible. California combines the highest Geography Score of 76.12 with the largest employment count of 75,090 and a median salary of $141,480 that is above the national median. New York, in contrast, offers the highest median salary at $164,120 but pairs it with a lower Geography Score of 69.47 and an employment count of 33,200. Texas and Florida represent cases where relatively large employment counts are associated with lower Geography Scores than the top two states and median salaries at or below the national benchmark. Texas has 58,420 employed medical and health services managers and a median salary of $114,150, while Florida reports 42,700 employed managers and a median salary of $120,360. Other states in the ranking, such as New Jersey, Massachusetts, Washington, Hawaii, Maryland, and Colorado, show median salaries above the national figure alongside smaller employment counts than California or Texas. Their Geography Scores cluster between 52.37 and 43.11, positioning them in the middle and lower half of the top‑10 list even though many of them have salaries that exceed the national median.

LaborCove draws on authoritative U.S. labor‑market data combined with its own Geography Score methodology to compare locations for medical and health services managers (occupation 11-9111). The national figures and state metrics in this article reflect Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) observations for May 2025. The projected 23.2% employment growth cited is a separate national‑level projection for this occupation, not an OEWS observation and not a geographic forecast. For each state, LaborCove uses the supplied median annual salary, employment count, and a LaborCove Geography Score. The Geography Score is an aggregate measure produced by LaborCove; the evidence here does not break down how individual metrics contribute to each score, so this article treats the scores as given without inferring their internal weighting. Rankings should be read as one input into a broader decision. They summarize how states compare on the metrics LaborCove measures, but they cannot account for individual factors such as preferred cities, professional networks, or personal constraints. Users should consider these rankings alongside their own priorities when evaluating potential locations.