District of Columbia, Alaska, Illinois, Massachusetts and Connecticut pay HVACR mechanics the highest median wages in the May 2025 BLS data — all near or above the national average cost of living.
Adjust each state's wage for 2024 price levels and the ranking changes: North Dakota, Illinois and Minnesota techs' median pay buys the most.
Here are the best states for HVAC technician pay, both raw and adjusted — plus the lowest-paying states and what a move is worth.
The top-paying states for HVAC techs (raw wages)
The May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics — the latest edition of the federal survey, released by BLS on May 15, 2026 — put the national median for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers (SOC 49-9021) at $61,010 a year, or $29.33 an hour, across 409,670 wage-and-salary jobs.
Ranked by annual median, the table below is the top of the state list.
Every figure here is a median, and both rankings on this page — raw and adjusted — keep to that one statistic, because the mean, which high earners pull upward, orders the states differently.
| Rank | State | Median annual wage, May 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | $84,390 |
| 2 | Alaska | $77,430 |
| 3 | Illinois | $77,410 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | $77,300 |
| 5 | Connecticut | $76,610 |
| 6 | Minnesota | $76,350 |
| 7 | Washington | $75,660 |
| 8 | North Dakota | $74,490 |
| 9 | New Jersey | $74,450 |
| 10 | New York | $74,430 |
| — | United States (median) | $61,010 |
The top of the table carries a job-count caveat: District of Columbia pays the highest median, $84,390, with only 400 HVACR jobs — BLS counts DC as a state.
Alaska is similar, a $77,430 median across 610 jobs.
Illinois, at $77,410 with 9,740 jobs, is the biggest market in the top five, ahead of Massachusetts with 8,200 jobs.
Rank the same data by the mean instead and the list changes shape: District of Columbia still leads at $84,920, but Washington ($78,860) and New Jersey ($77,580) take the spots Illinois and Connecticut hold in the median ranking.
The national mean was $64,780, above the median for the same reason.
For what techs at the 10th and 90th percentiles earn in a specific state, the HVAC salary by state tables carry each state's full May 2025 percentile spread.
How to read this ranking
Top-paying states for HVAC techs, adjusted for cost of living
A dollar buys different amounts in different states, which is why the raw ranking overstates some winners.
BEA's Regional Price Parities put a price level on every state, indexed to the U.S. average of 100: for 2024, the highest were California at 110.7, Hawaii at 110.0 and New Jersey at 108.8 (DC at 109.9), and the lowest were Arkansas at 86.9, Mississippi at 87.0, Iowa at 87.8 and Oklahoma at 87.8.
To see what each median actually buys, we divided every state's BLS median by its BEA 2024 price parity, rebased to the U.S. average of 100.
The result is what that state's median is worth at national price levels.
It is our calculation, not a BLS or BEA statistic, so every adjusted figure below is labeled adjusted for 2024 price levels.
The price levels shown are rounded to one decimal, but the adjusted medians are computed from BEA's unrounded parities — which is why Illinois' $77,410 median adjusts to $77,443 at a printed 100.0, and North Dakota's $74,490 to $83,735 at a printed 89.0.
| Rank | State | Median, May 2025 | Adjusted for 2024 price levels | Price level (U.S. = 100) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Dakota | $74,490 | $83,735 | 89.0 |
| 2 | Illinois | $77,410 | $77,443 | 100.0 |
| 3 | Minnesota | $76,350 | $77,418 | 98.6 |
| 4 | District of Columbia | $84,390 | $76,787 | 109.9 |
| 5 | Alaska | $77,430 | $75,646 | 102.4 |
| 6 | Connecticut | $76,610 | $73,941 | 103.6 |
| 7 | Massachusetts | $77,300 | $73,092 | 105.8 |
| 8 | New Hampshire | $73,850 | $70,897 | 104.2 |
| 9 | Washington | $75,660 | $70,702 | 107.0 |
| 10 | South Dakota | $61,390 | $69,300 | 88.6 |
North Dakota is the headline: a $74,490 median at a price level of 89.0 adjusts to $83,735 — more real buying power than the raw leader's median keeps: DC's $84,390 shrinks to $76,787 against its 109.9 price level.
Illinois and Minnesota also gain ground, and Illinois is the one state that sits in the top three of both tables while employing 9,740 HVACR mechanics.
The expensive states give it back.
Washington's $75,660 adjusts to $70,702 at a price level of 107.0, New York's $74,430 to $68,967, New Jersey's $74,450 to $68,425, and California's $72,560 to $65,535 at 110.7.
Hawaii — the second-most-expensive state at 110.0 — pays a $65,450 median that adjusts to $59,527, below the national median in real buying power.
Cheap states can outrank their raw position: Iowa's $60,680 median never touches the raw top ten, yet at a price level of 87.8 it adjusts to $69,142 — more than New York, New Jersey or California.
South Dakota does the same, adjusting from $61,390 to $69,300 at 88.6.
Three of the raw top ten price at or below the national average — Illinois at a printed 100.0, Minnesota at 98.6 and North Dakota at 89.0 — and the other seven price above it, with DC at 109.9, New Jersey at 108.8 and New York at 107.9 among the country's most expensive places.
The inverse does not hold either: none of the four cheapest states (Arkansas, Mississippi, Iowa, Oklahoma) pays its way into the raw top ten, and cheap prices alone do not lift their adjusted medians into the adjusted top ten either.
What the adjustment is — and is not
The lowest-paying states for HVAC techs
The bottom of the May 2025 median table: Arkansas at $48,110, Alabama at $48,370, Mississippi at $48,680, West Virginia at $48,850 and New Mexico at $50,270 — every one well below the $61,010 national median.
They are also cheap states, with 2024 price levels running from 86.9 in Arkansas to 92.2 in New Mexico.
Adjust for those low prices and the gap narrows without closing: Arkansas adjusts to $55,339, Mississippi to $55,984, Alabama to $54,457.
All five land in the bottom six of the adjusted ranking — none of them buys its way to the real wages of North Dakota's $83,735.
Florida is the instructive case.
It employs more HVACR mechanics than any state — 39,160 jobs — at a $56,670 median, and its 103.4 price level adjusts that down to $54,799: less buying power than Arkansas's adjusted median ($55,339), in the largest state HVAC job market in the country.
The floor for an individual worker shows up in the percentiles.
Nationally, the 10th percentile for HVACR mechanics was $19.25 an hour ($40,050 a year) in May 2025, and the 25th percentile $23.25 ($48,360) — so the median tech in the lowest-paying states earns close to the national 25th-percentile line.
One measurement note cuts in the reader's favor: OEWS wages exclude overtime, shift differentials and non-production bonuses, so actual annual earnings for techs who work heavy peak-season hours can exceed the published figures.
Why HVAC pay differs by state
The first thing the data shows is that the jobs map and the pay map are different places.
The five states with the most HVACR jobs — Florida (39,160), California (35,130), Texas (34,730), New York (24,430) and Pennsylvania (15,880) — hold none of the top five medians, which belong to markets a fraction of the size.
Metro data sharpens that point.
The highest-paying metro areas in May 2025 were Fairbanks-College, Alaska ($93,820 median); Anchorage, Alaska ($85,620); Napa, California ($84,570); San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California ($82,050); and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington ($80,100) — every one above its own state's median.
A statewide median smooths over the metros that pay a premium inside it.
Employer mix matters too.
The national medians for HVACR mechanics ran $71,190 in wholesale trade, $62,830 in retail trade, $62,520 in educational services and $60,030 at plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors — gaps wide enough that a state's blend of distributors, schools, and service or construction shops may be one reason its median lands where it does.
Measurement adds a wrinkle: OEWS counts commissions and production bonuses in its wages but excludes overtime, shift differentials and non-production bonuses.
Two states with similar tables can therefore pay different real paychecks once peak-season overtime enters.
On unions, the federal data speaks only at the group level: BLS's union tables publish only broad occupation groups — no HVAC-specific membership rate — and our research found no primary source for a trade-specific union premium.
What the tables do publish is that 12.5% of workers in installation, maintenance and repair occupations — the group containing HVACR mechanics — were union members in 2025, and full-time union members in that group had median weekly earnings of $1,571 against $1,140 for non-union workers.
That is a raw comparison for a broad group, not an HVAC wage gap; how union scale is actually set is covered in our guide to union HVAC pay.
Should you move for HVAC pay?
The measured premium for moving is real but comes with strings.
The raw leader pays an $84,390 median against the $61,010 national median, and all ten top states pay $74,430 or more.
But the raw leaders are tiny markets — 400 HVACR jobs in DC, 610 in Alaska — and the adjusted leader, North Dakota, has 970.
Two of the three largest markets — Florida (39,160 jobs) at $56,670 and Texas (34,730) at $57,760 — pay below the national median.
California, the second-largest at 35,130 jobs, pays $72,560 — well above the national median, but only $65,535 of buying power once its 110.7 price level is counted.
On the adjusted ranking, the practical standout is Illinois: a $77,410 median, a 9,740-job market, a price level of 100.0 (rounded) and $77,443 of real buying power — a top-three state in both tables, with 9,740 jobs against North Dakota's 970.
Minnesota and North Dakota offer the same arithmetic in smaller markets.
Compare offers, not just states.
A national median of $61,010 means half of the country's wage-and-salary HVACR techs earn more than that, and HVAC technician jobs on the board show what is actually open near you now.
The metro premiums mean an intra-state move can matter as much as a cross-country one — Seattle pays an $80,100 median against Washington's $75,660.
A move also crosses licence lines.
As of September 29, 2026, 13 jurisdictions had a statewide individual HVAC worker licence at the apprentice, technician or journeyman rung.
Where you stand — and what your experience counts as — is decided by the jurisdiction you move to, not the one you leave; start at the HVAC license ladder.
If a permanent move is too much, travel work is the middle path: our guide to travel HVAC jobs covers how traveling techs are paid, from per diem to road-time rules.
Career information, not legal or pay advice. Licence rules come from your state licensing board, or the city and county where licensing is local; wage figures are BLS OEWS May 2025 medians and BEA 2024 price parities. Confirm current rules with the authority that issues them before you plan a move.
Confirm the rules where you would work