Best States for Network & Computer Systems Administrators in 2026: Texas and California Lead, High-Pay Maryland and New Jersey Follow

For network and computer systems administrators, national median annual pay stands at $99,130, with 314,340 people employed in the occupation across the country and a projected national employment decline of 4.2%. Against that backdrop, LaborCove’s state rankings highlight 10 states that combine different levels of pay, employment, and Geography Scores. The top two states in the ranking, Texas and California, both earn Geography Scores just above 70 and also hold the largest employment counts among the top 10. Texas is ranked #1 with 34,840 employed administrators, while California is ranked #2 with 26,170. Both states have median salaries above the national figure, but California’s is numerically higher than Texas’s. Higher-ranked states do not always have the highest pay. Maryland and New Jersey, ranked #3 and #5, have median salaries of $118,290 and $116,420, which are above both the national median and the salaries in Texas and California. Yet their Geography Scores are lower, illustrating that the LaborCove rankings reflect more than salary alone. Employment counts also vary widely within the top 10. Florida and California each have more than 26,000 employed network and computer systems administrators in the supplied data, while Maryland and New Jersey each have under 10,000. This contrast shows that within the top-ranked group, some states combine relatively high employment with moderate-to-high salaries, while others pair higher salaries with smaller employment counts. Overall, the data demonstrate that the “best” state depends on which metric you care about most: ranking, pay level, or employment count. LaborCove’s Geography Scores provide a single summary of each state’s position in the model, but the salary and employment figures clarify how these states differ in concrete terms.

Nationally, network and computer systems administrators have a median annual salary of $99,130 in 2026. Total employment for the occupation is 314,340, and national employment is projected to decline by 4.2%. These national figures provide a baseline for interpreting state results. Every top-10 state in the LaborCove ranking can be compared against the national median salary and national employment totals to understand whether it sits above or below the broader market on pay and scale.

Texas holds the #1 state rank for network and computer systems administrators, with a LaborCove Geography Score of 70.87. It also has the largest employment count among the top 10 states at 34,840, and a median salary of $101,240. That salary is numerically above the national median while remaining lower than several other top-10 states. California ranks #2 with a Geography Score of 70.42 and an employment count of 26,170. California’s median salary of $106,440 is higher than both the national figure and Texas’s median pay. Among the top 10, Texas and California are the only states with Geography Scores above 70, and they have the two largest employment counts in the supplied ranking.

Several states in the top 10 have median salaries that exceed those of Texas and California while ranking below them overall. Maryland, ranked #3, has a median salary of $118,290, which is higher than the national median and higher than the salaries in both Texas and California. New Jersey, at rank #5, has a median salary of $116,420, also above the national median and above Texas and California. Massachusetts and Virginia show a similar pattern. Massachusetts is ranked #6 with a median salary of $110,980, and Virginia is ranked #7 at $109,610. Both salaries are above the national median of $99,130 and above Texas’s $101,240. These comparisons illustrate that within the LaborCove framework, high salaries can coexist with lower ranks when viewed alongside other factors captured in the Geography Score.

Within the top 10, employment counts range from just over 8,000 to more than 34,000. Texas has the largest employment count among these states at 34,840. California and Florida follow with 26,170 and 26,890 employed network and computer systems administrators respectively, and Ohio shows 15,130. By contrast, Maryland and New Jersey—despite their higher salaries—have employment counts of 9,230 and 9,280. Massachusetts and Washington are also in the single‑digit thousands for employment, at 8,270 and 8,600. These figures show that some highly ranked states combine high salaries with smaller supplied employment counts, while others pair somewhat lower salaries with larger employment totals.

LaborCove’s Geography Scores create separation among states whose headline numbers may look close. Maryland and New York, for example, have very similar Geography Scores—61.92 for Maryland and 61.89 for New York—yet Maryland is ranked #3 and New York #4. Their salaries and employment counts differ: Maryland has a higher median salary at $118,290 compared with New York’s $105,810, while New York has the larger employment count at 18,220 compared with Maryland’s 9,230. Florida and Ohio provide another comparison. Florida ranks #8 with a Geography Score of 55.45 and a median salary of $95,200, while Ohio ranks #10 with a Geography Score of 49.81 and a median salary of $97,570. Ohio’s salary is higher than Florida’s, but Florida has a higher Geography Score and a larger employment count at 26,890 versus Ohio’s 15,130. These examples underscore that the Geography Score reflects a combination of metrics rather than tracking salary or employment alone.

LaborCove’s Best States rankings for network and computer systems administrators use authoritative labor‑market data combined with the LaborCove Geography Score. For each state, the model incorporates measured factors such as median annual salary, employment, and other internal elements to produce a single Geography Score and rank. All salary and employment figures in this article come from the supplied LaborCove dataset for occupation 15-1244 in 2026. National projected employment growth of -4.2% is a national‑level occupational projection and is not applied to individual states. Because the Geography Score is a composite, a state with a higher salary does not always rank above a state with a lower salary, and a larger employment count does not guarantee a higher rank. Readers should interpret the rankings as one structured comparison among states and weigh them alongside their own priorities, such as preferred regions or non‑labor‑market considerations that are outside the scope of this data.