Database Administrators salary

SOC 15-1242 · BLS OEWS May 2025

Median

$104,620

per year, nationally

Middle half

$79,610–$135,460

25th to 75th percentile

Employed

69,990

in the U.S.

Growth 2024–34

-0.7%

3,800 openings/yr

What the range looks like

A single median hides most of what a job pays. The bar below is the full national range: the wash spans the 10th to 90th percentile, the solid bar is the middle half, and the tick is the median.

$60,230$163,320

10th: $60,230
25th: $79,610
Median: $104,620
75th: $135,460
90th: $163,320

Getting in

Typical education to enter: Bachelor's degree
Related work experience: None
On-the-job training: None

Entry requirements describe what is typical, not mandatory. Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34.

Where database administrators earn the most

Nominal pay and pay adjusted for local prices rank states differently — a high-wage state with high costs can be worse off in real terms than a middling one. Switch between the two below.

The median wage as published, before local prices are taken into account.

#	State	Median	Cost of living	Employed	Concentrationvs. national
1	Utah	$135,750	98.9	1,200	1.53×
2	Massachusetts	$129,300	105.8	2,310	1.41×
3	New Jersey	$125,860	108.8	1,810	0.94×
4	Maryland	$124,300	105.0	2,300	1.85×
5	District of Columbia	$118,540	109.9	560	1.78×
6	Colorado	$118,340	103.1	1,220	0.95×
7	Washington	$118,140	107.0	1,730	1.08×
8	Tennessee	$115,500	91.9	2,020	1.37×
9	Texas	$114,400	97.1	6,430	1.02×
10	North Carolina	$113,900	94.3	1,920	0.86×
11	California	$113,060	110.7	7,240	0.88×
12	Nevada	$109,670	100.0	380	0.54×
13	Alaska	$108,810	102.4	90	0.60×
14	Connecticut	$108,270	103.6	810	1.06×
15	Georgia	$106,810	96.3	2,460	1.12×
16	Rhode Island	$106,020	102.3	280	1.25×
17	New York	$105,900	107.9	3,590	0.82×
18	Illinois	$104,650	100.0	2,340	0.85×
19	Arizona	$104,280	100.7	1,120	0.77×
20	Vermont	$104,230	98.0	120	0.87×
21	Florida	$104,120	103.4	3,810	0.85×
22	Iowa	$101,210	87.8	360	0.51×
23	Delaware	$100,910	99.8	670	3.07×
24	Minnesota	$100,700	98.6	1,020	0.77×
25	Missouri	$100,270	90.8	1,140	0.86×
26	Oregon	$100,260	103.4	1,060	1.19×
27	Kansas	$100,170	90.1	440	0.67×
28	Pennsylvania	$100,110	97.6	2,450	0.90×
29	Nebraska	$100,020	90.1	610	1.33×
30	Wisconsin	$100,020	94.1	1,220	0.92×
31	Michigan	$99,830	96.2	1,150	0.58×
32	New Mexico	$98,450	92.2	570	1.45×
33	Louisiana	$98,270	88.2	290	0.34×
34	Ohio	$97,190	92.8	1,860	0.75×
35	Oklahoma	$95,320	87.8	790	1.02×
36	Alabama	$93,900	88.8	1,840	1.93×
37	South Carolina	$93,640	93.7	990	0.96×
38	Virginia	$93,320	101.1	5,940	3.21×
39	New Hampshire	$92,110	104.2	250	0.80×
40	Indiana	$90,090	93.3	930	0.65×
41	Mississippi	$87,790	87.0	200	0.37×
42	Kentucky	$87,390	90.2	650	0.72×
43	Idaho	$85,660	95.5	180	0.48×
44	Hawaii	$85,500	110.0	100	0.35×
45	Montana	$83,120	94.6	300	1.32×
46	South Dakota	$82,540	88.6	170	0.83×
47	Arkansas	$82,480	86.9	420	0.71×
48	Wyoming	$82,480	92.7	100	0.79×
49	North Dakota	$78,730	89.0	80	0.40×
50	West Virginia	$73,490	89.5	240	0.77×
51	Maine	$70,500	97.0	260	0.91×

Cost of living is the BEA regional price parity for all items, where 100 is the national average. Concentration is the BLS location quotient: how much more of the local workforce does this job than the national average, so 2.00× means twice the national share. It is often the reason wages differ — a place that concentrates an occupation has the employers and the competition for it. States where database administrators wages are suppressed by BLS for confidentiality are omitted.

Best paying metro areas for database administrators

The 40 highest-paying metros with a published estimate. BLS suppresses roughly half of all occupation-by-metro cells, so a metro absent here has no local figure rather than a low one.

The median wage as published, before local prices are taken into account.

#	Metro area	Median	Cost of living	Employed	Concentrationvs. national
1	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$138,620	110.4	580	1.14×
2	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$133,180	111.1	1,010	1.07×
3	Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH	$132,370	108.3	1,910	1.57×
4	San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA	$130,780	108.6	60	1.02×
5	Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT	$129,010	98.2	160	1.15×
6	Fort Collins-Loveland, CO	$128,780	101.1	60	0.84×
7	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$127,760	115.6	1,470	1.37×
8	Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT	$125,760	106.9	200	1.12×
9	Vallejo, CA	$125,600	108.5	30	0.53×
10	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL	$124,560	100.9	670	1.02×
11	Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA	$124,040	110.5	110	0.74×
12	Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN	$123,920	96.3	750	1.52×
13	Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX	$123,830	98.1	1,110	1.90×
14	Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD	$123,730	104.5	1,190	1.95×
15	Trenton-Princeton, NJ	$123,490	103.2	170	1.59×
16	Raleigh-Cary, NC	$122,950	98.2	510	1.54×
17	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	$122,390	103.1	2,430	1.33×
18	New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$121,550	112.6	3,630	0.85×
19	Anchorage, AK	$121,260	105.4	50	0.65×
20	Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA	$120,500	106.7	410	0.84×
21	Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO	$120,120	105.8	800	1.11×
22	Columbus, GA-AL	$119,740	89.3	40	0.68×
23	Colorado Springs, CO	$118,170	100.7	110	0.79×
24	Durham-Chapel Hill, NC	$117,950	97.6	220	1.42×
25	Lexington Park, MD	$116,630	100.8	80	2.63×
26	Boulder, CO	$116,250	105.2	110	1.22×
27	Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX	$116,030	98.6	1,090	0.74×
28	Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA	$115,330	103.7	390	6.70×
29	Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL	$115,100	101.4	580	0.91×
30	Springfield, MA	$114,850	96.1	90	0.95×
31	Champaign-Urbana, IL	$114,630	92.7	50	0.95×
32	Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC	$113,890	97.3	550	0.90×
33	Jacksonville, FL	$113,500	99.5	300	0.88×
34	Tulsa, OK	$113,420	89.2	140	0.68×
35	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$112,540	113.6	2,280	0.81×
36	Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL	$112,160	100.0	110	1.01×
37	Bellingham, WA	$111,990	103.3	30	0.78×
38	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	$110,950	100.1	1,780	1.37×
39	Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV	$110,740	100.2	270	0.52×
40	Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI	$110,160	100.3	510	0.59×

Cost of living is the BEA regional price parity for all items, where 100 is the national average. Concentration is the BLS location quotient: how much more of the local workforce does this job than the national average, so 2.00× means twice the national share. It is often the reason wages differ — a place that concentrates an occupation has the employers and the competition for it. Metro areas where database administrators wages are suppressed by BLS for confidentiality are omitted.

Similar occupations

Other jobs in the same field, with what each pays nationally.

Software Developers$135,980
Computer User Support Specialists$61,860
Computer Systems Analysts$105,850
Computer Occupations, All Other$116,580
Network and Computer Systems Administrators$99,130
Information Security Analysts$129,180
Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers$104,300
Computer Network Architects$134,050