If you’re looking for an entry-level job, you may be experiencing uncertainty about your future. What will your career path look like, where will you live, and how much will you earn?
A 2023 Real Estate Witch survey found that new grads expect to earn nearly $30,000 more than their actual starting salary just one year after graduation. This mismatched expectation and potential dissatisfaction may not bode well for new grads’ employers. According to a 2023 survey from ResumeLab, 70% of Gen Z workers say a competitive salary is important or very important when deciding to stay with a current employer. And 32% would quit their jobs due to an unsatisfactory paycheck.
Where you live has an immense impact on what you’re paid. Your location also impacts your cost of living. When considering which cities have the highest-paying entry-level jobs, it’s not enough to look at salary; you should consider how much you’ll have to pay each month for rent, groceries, and other essential goods and services. (Try our take-home pay calculator!)
We evaluated earning potential and cost of living for hundreds of U.S. cities to determine the best cities for high-paying entry-level jobs.
Methodology: How We Ranked the Cities
We evaluated 399 U.S. principal cities of Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). We scored and ranked those cities on ten criteria, prioritizing the availability of high-paying entry-level jobs alongside indicators of affordability.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of our data sources:
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages* (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021)
- Median household income (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2021)
- Median earnings for all workers (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2021)
- Percentage of employed people with health insurance (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2021)
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2021)
- Price level as a percentage of the national price level (Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2021)
- Wage growth (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2020 – May 2021)
- Job growth (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2021 – November 2022)
- Unemployment (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2021)
- Poverty rate (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2021)
*To get the weighted average entry-level hourly wage, we calculated the average entry-level hourly wage across occupations in each city, weighting the average by the employment numbers for those occupations in that city.
Crunching the Numbers
Our scores are weighted, meaning that not every factor contributes equally to a city’s final score. Here is the breakdown of the score-weighting:
- 60%: Weighted average entry-level hourly wage, median household income, median earnings for all workers, and the percentage of employed people with health insurance
- 20%: The percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing and the price level compared to the national level
- 10%: Wage growth and job growth
- 10%: Unemployment rate and poverty rate
We normalized all individual factors by converting them to percentiles. We then calculated a weighted average of these normalized scores to get an overall score for each city. Note: For some factors, a higher value is better; for others, a lower value is better. We took these different directions into account when computing scores.
We used data available at the MSA level for the weighted average entry-level hourly wage, wage growth, job growth, and price level relative to the national level. For the other six factors, we used data available at the Place level.
A small number of cities were missing the percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing. For most of them, we were able to substitute the average percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing across the other cities in the same MSA in our dataset. For the remaining cities, which were the only principal cities in their respective MSAs in our dataset, we substituted the median value across all the cities that had a value.
The Best Cities for High-Paying Entry-Level Jobs
1. Mountain View, California
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $32.01
- Median household income: $157,243
- Median earnings for all workers: $120,243
- Percentage of employed people with health insurance: 99%
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 30.9%
- Price level as a percentage of the national price level: 112%
- Wage growth: 6.4%
- Job growth: 4.3%
- Unemployment: 3.2%
- Poverty rate: 7.3%
Mountain View, California, earned the top spot in our ranking of the best cities for high-paying entry-level jobs. Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc. are headquartered in Mountain View, which is in Silicon Valley, part of the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA. Even with recent layoffs, the company employs over 150,000 people.
Entry-level software developers in that area earned $71.62 per hour on average, according to 2021 estimates, and there were over 67,000 software developers working for companies in the MSA as of May 2021.
Mountain View has some of the highest values in our dataset for weighted average entry-level hourly wage, median income, median earnings for all workers, and percentage of employed people with health insurance. Unemployment in Mountain View is only 3.2%, and wage growth of 6.4% between May 2020 and May 2021 in its MSA puts Mountain View in the 96th percentile.
However, Silicon Valley doesn’t have a reputation for being affordable. The price level in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA is 112% of the national level. Across the principal cities in this MSA in our dataset, an average of 30.9% of people spend 30% or more of their income on housing. (Note: That number isn’t so high, relatively speaking. The No.1 city for this metric, Kissimmee, Florida, has a whopping 54.9% of residents spending 30% or more of their income on housing.)
2. Palo Alto, California
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $32.01
- Median household income: $195,781
- Median earnings for all workers: $104,581
- Percentage of employed people with health insurance: 99%
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 30.9%
- Price level as a percentage of the national price level: 112%
- Wage growth: 6.4%
- Job growth: 4.3%
- Unemployment: 4.5%
- Poverty rate: 7.2%
Palo Alto, just west of Mountain View, comes in second in our ranking. It is located in the same MSA as Mountain View, and it’s the home of Stanford University.
Palo Alto has the highest value for median household income of all the cities in our dataset ($195,781). Though its poverty rate of 7.2% is slightly better than Mountain View’s 7.3%, its unemployment rate is worse: 4.5% compared to Mountain View’s 3.2%. The median earnings for all workers in Palo Alto are $104,581, while in Mountain View, they are $120,243.
3. Santa Clara, California
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $32.01
- Median household income: $155,238
- Median earnings for all workers: $88,186
- Percentage of employed people with health insurance: 98.9%
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 26.4%
- Price level as a percentage of the national price level: 112%
- Wage growth: 6.4%
- Job growth: 4.3%
- Unemployment: 6.2%
- Poverty rate: 8.8%
Santa Clara, California, is the third city in Silicon Valley to earn a place in our ranking. Intel and Nvidia are both headquartered there, as are a number of other tech companies.
>>MORE: Top Tech Companies in the U.S.
Santa Clara has a slightly lower percentage of employed people with health insurance: 98.9%, compared to 99% in Mountain View and Palo Alto. Only 26.4% of people in Santa Clara spend 30% or more of their income on housing (vs. 30.9% in the two leading cities). The unemployment rate (6.2%) and poverty rate (8.8%) in Santa Clara are higher than in Mountain View and Palo Alto. The median earnings for all workers are also lower: $88,186, compared to $120,243 in Mountain View and $104,581 in Palo Alto.
4. Sunnyvale, California
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $32.01
- Median household income: $156,059
- Median earnings for all workers: $98,294
- Percentage of employed people with health insurance: 98.3%
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 30.1%
- Price level as a percentage of the national price level: 112%
- Wage growth: 6.4%
- Job growth: 4.3%
- Unemployment: 6.3%
- Poverty rate: 5.0%
Sunnyvale, California, is between Mountain View and Santa Clara and is located in the same MSA as the three cities above it in our ranking. Just over 30% of people in Sunnyvale spend more than 30% of their income on housing, a lower percentage than 79% of cities in our dataset. Meanwhile, 98.3% of employed people in Sunnyvale have health insurance, and its unemployment rate of 6.3% puts the MSA near the middle of the pack compared to the other cities in our dataset.
5. Newton, Massachusetts
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $21.58
- Median household income: $183,208
- Median earnings for all workers: $78,069
- Percentage of employed people with health insurance: 99.1%
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 24.5%
- Price level as a percentage of the national price level: 110%
- Wage growth: 4.1%
- Job growth: 1.5%
- Unemployment: 3.9%
- Poverty rate: 3.4%
Newton, Massachusetts, is a city located outside of Boston and is part of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton MSA. Boston College is located in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Newton. Entry-level software developers in Newton made $48.57 per hour on average, according to 2021 estimates. Entry-level first-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers made $35.98 per hour on average, and entry-level financial and investment analysts made $35.25 per hour.
Newton scored well in our ranking in part due to its high weighted average entry-level wages; it was in the 94th percentile. It has a lower percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing than 96% of the cities in our dataset, with 24.5% spending that much. Newton is also in the 99th percentile for the percentage of employed people with health insurance (99.1%).
Newton scored worse in terms of its price level relative to the national level (110%). Its job growth of 1.5% between November 2021 and November 2022 lands it in the 28th percentile for that metric.
6. Milpitas, California
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $32.01
- Median household income: $169,460
- Median earnings for all workers: $66,371
- Percentage of employed people with health insurance: 98.9%
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 30.9%
- Price level as a percentage of the national price level: 112%
- Wage growth: 6.4%
- Job growth: 4.3%
- Unemployment: 7.1%
- Poverty rate: 6.1%
Milpitas, California, is in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA, along with the top four cities in our ranking: Mountain View, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale. The city does not score as well as the other cities in part because its unemployment rate of 7.1% is higher than 65% of the cities in our dataset.
The median earnings for all workers ($66,371) are also lower than the four other cities in the same MSA in our ranking, though still in the 94th percentile overall. The median household income of $169,460 is in the 99th percentile.
7. Rochester, Minnesota
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $22.98
- Median household income: $75,902
- Median earnings for all workers: $45,870
- Percentage of employed people with health insurance: 96.7%
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 24.6%
- Price level as a percentage of the national price level: 92%
- Wage growth: 9.3%
- Job growth: 1.3%
- Unemployment: 4.2%
- Poverty rate: 8.6%
The No. 7-ranked Rochester, Minnesota, is home to the Mayo Clinic, and entry-level registered nurses earned $39.45 per hour on average in its MSA, according to 2021 estimates. In May 2021, there were over 9,000 registered nurses in Rochester’s MSA. The city of Rochester has a population of over 121,000.
Rochester’s weighted average hourly wage for entry-level workers of $22.98 puts it in the 96th percentile for that factor. It’s in the 95th percentile for the percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing, with only 24.6% spending that much. Rochester’s price level relative to the national level (92%) is also significantly more affordable than any of the cities above it in our ranking.
>>MORE: Rochester, Minnesota, also landed on our list of The Best Small Cities for Remote Work.
8. Roseville, California
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $22.66
- Median household income: $107,714
- Median earnings for all workers: $61,617
- Percentage of employed people with health insurance: 98.4%
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 31.3%
- Price level as a percentage of the national price level: 106%
- Wage growth: 4.4%
- Job growth: 2.9%
- Unemployment: 4.2%
- Poverty rate: 5.8%
Roseville is the first California city in our ranking outside of the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is about 20 miles outside of Sacramento. Entry-level lawyers in Roseville’s MSA made $61.90 per hour on average, according to 2021 estimates. Entry-level registered nurses made $59.11 per hour, entry-level civil engineers made $54.24 per hour, and entry-level personal financial advisers made $53.74 per hour.
Roseville scored in the 95th percentile for weighted average entry-level hourly wage and the 98th percentile for the percentage of employed people with health insurance (98.4%). Meanwhile, 31.3% of people in Roseville spend 30% or more of their income on housing.
Roseville is slightly more affordable than the Silicon Valley cities: Its MSA has a price level relative to the national level of 106%, which is still higher than 78% of cities in our dataset.
9. Folsom, California
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $22.66
- Median household income: $125,010
- Median earnings for all workers: $70,552
- Percentage of employed people with health insurance: 98.5%
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 34.2%
- Price level as a percentage of the national price level: 106%
- Wage growth: 4.4%
- Job growth: 2.9%
- Unemployment: 4.4%
- Poverty rate: 4.9%
Folsom, California, is in the same MSA as Roseville. The median household income and median earnings for all workers are slightly higher in Folsom than in Roseville: $125,010 and $70,552 to Roseville’s $107,714 and $61,617. However, Folsom’s unemployment rate is slightly higher: 4.4% to Roseville’s 4.2%. Across the principal cities in Folsom’s MSA in our dataset, 34.2% of people spend 30% or more of their income on housing on average, putting Folsom in the 57th percentile for that metric.
10. Broomfield, Colorado
- Weighted average entry-level hourly wages: $21.42
- Median household income: $107,638
- Median earnings for all workers: $52,815
- Percentage of employed people with health insurance: 95.7%
- Percentage of people spending 30% or more of their income on housing: 27.8%
- Price level as a percentage of the national price level: 109%
- Wage growth: 2.9%
- Job growth: 4.2%
- Unemployment: 3.7%
- Poverty rate: 5.1%
Broomfield, Colorado, is located near Boulder and Denver. Ball Corporation, a manufacturing company, is headquartered in Broomfield. Mechanical engineers in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood MSA earned $44.49 per hour on average, according to 2021 estimates.
The median household income and median earnings for all workers in Broomfield are lower than most of the other cities in our top 10: $107,638 and $52,815, respectively. However, only 27.8% of people in Broomfield spend 30% or more of their income on housing, and the price level relative to the national level of 109% is somewhat more affordable than some of our top-ranking cities. Broomfield also has a lower unemployment rate than 90% of the cities we examined and a lower poverty rate than 95% of the cities.
Comparing Cities With the Highest-Paying Entry-Level Jobs
In the below plots, the green bars show how cities on our list score for each of the criteria. The yellow bars represent the other cities in our dataset.
Finding the Best City to Start Your Career
Salary is just one of many important factors to consider when deciding whether to accept an entry-level job offer, especially if the role would require you to relocate. Of course, it’s essential to ensure that the salary for the job is enough to cover your expenses, but there are many components of job satisfaction.
How you weigh salary against other factors will differ depending on your personal wants and needs, says Daniela Herrera, director of recruitment operations and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) at international advertising agency R/GA.
“If you find yourself in a situation where your take-home pay is the most important aspect of the job, you might also want to learn about their health benefits, and [paid time-off] policies, for example,” she says. “However, if you’re trying to find a role and a company that aligns heavily with your own values, interests, and needs, you might also want to learn about their [equity, diversity, and inclusion] strategies, mental health benefits, time-off policies, etc.”
If you’re seriously considering relocating for a job, make sure the new location allows you to prioritize aspects of work-life balance that are most important to you.
“Your mental health, well-being, and psychological safety are as important as securing the job you want,” Herrera says.
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