California bosses make 146% more than typical workers

California bosses earn a median wage of $143,200, 146% more than the typical worker's $58,200, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report. The state has 1.3 million managers, the most of any state, but ranks 16th in manager concentration at 7.3% of the workforce.

Getting your Trinity Audio //trinityaudio.ai player ready...Managerial roles can be coveted jobs, but is it worth it to be the boss? Well, my trusty spreadsheet https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29301388/ crunched the numbers to assess the financial side of this career choice, contrasting paychecks for managers vs. the typical worker. A new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics provided insights into staffing and median wages by occupation across 50 states, as of May 2025, for all industries and company sizes. The study shows California has the most managers of any state, with 1.3 million people in various managerial roles ranging from chief executive to assembly-line supervisor. RELATED: A tax on California billionaires to fund healthcare is officially on the ballot That top ranking isn’t due to California’s quirky corporate culture. It’s mainly because the state has the biggest job market in the country. California’s economic arch-rivals follow in the boss headcount: Texas with 1.2 million managers and Florida with 740,000. Yet if you look at managers as a slice of the whole workforce, the California workplace’s share of bosses is actually pretty modest. Managers made up 7.3% of California’s 18.2 million workers, putting the state at No. 16 for the concentration of bosses. That’s just a smidge above the national average of 7.2%. Bosses were most common in Maryland, with a 9.4% share, Massachusetts at 9%, and Connecticut at 8.8%. Meanwhile, management was leanest in South Dakota, with a 3.8% share, followed by Mississippi at 4.1% and Washington state at 5.1%. And California’s arch-rivals are boss-heavy. In Texas, management accounted for 8.6% of all workers, ranking No. 5. In Florida, they’re 7.4% of all workers, ranking No. 13. Padded paychecks So, how’s the pay as a supervisor? Of course, managers usually pull in much bigger paychecks. And that’s before you even count the possibility of extra goodies like bonuses, profit sharing or stock options, etc. Think about median wages as tallied by the report, the midpoint pay for a group of workers. A California boss had a median wage of $143,200 a year, ranking No. 8 among states and 13% above the nation’s $126,500. That was well below the nation’s best-paid bosses from New Jersey at $166,700, New York at $165,300 and Washington state at $160,000. At the other end of the pay ladder, Arkansas managers made $84,800, West Virginia $93,600, and Mississippi $96,600. California’s rivals? Texas managers earned $119,400 20th place , while Florida’s made $108,300 31st place . Meager middle Next, eyeball what the typical worker brings home. California’s median wage for all workers was $58,200. That ranks ninth highest among states and is 14% higher than the nation’s $51,000. The biggest median paychecks were in Massachusetts at $63,600, Washington at $63,000, and Alaska at $61,000. At the bottom of the list: Mississippi workers earned $40,100, Arkansas $43,600, and West Virginia $45,300. And typical wages aren’t high in California’s rival states. In Texas, the median worker earns $48,600, ranking 30th, and in Florida, it’s $47,900, No. 36. Premium pay That’s a pretty wide pay gap. In California, it adds up to the typical boss earning a 146% premium over the typical worker’s wage. That’s the 11th-largest gap among the states, though it’s just a bit below the national premium of 148%. The largest pay gaps were found in financial hubs such as New Jersey 185% , Delaware 184% , and New York 177% . The smallest premiums were in more rural states: Vermont at 91%, Arkansas at 94%, and North Dakota at 97%. Rivals? In Texas, managers make 146% more than workers, the 12th-highest boss premium. In Florida, the gap is 126%, placing it 27th. Good investment Are bosses worth the big bucks? Cogitate the states, ranked by managerial pay. Employers in those high-pay states seem to value bosses, as 7.2% of their workers were in management, compared with 6.6% in low-pay states. Is that a good investment? Well, at least in 2025, the extra spending on bosses paid off, as measured by one yardstick of business efficiency. Labor productivity grew by an average of 2.3% in high-pay states, compared to just 0.7% in low-pay states. By the way, California, where bosses earn the eighth-highest wages, had last year’s second-highest productivity gain among the states at 4.2%. Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com