Service Business Wages by State: What Staff Earn in All 50 States

Editorial corrections verified September 15, 2026. Fixed edition: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2025 state estimates (file oesm25st) — median hourly wages for ten detailed SOC occupations.

Staff wages are often the largest line in a service-business budget, and they vary sharply by
state. The table below shows the median hourly wage in every state for
ten specific occupations (detailed SOC codes) that match the businesses we
cover — from childcare workers to HVAC techs to tree trimmers — from the federal
employer wage survey. Read it as a labor-cost reference for what employers report
paying staff in that occupation and state, or what you might earn working in the trade
before going out on your own. These figures are not take-home pay, not total
compensation, and not an all-occupation average for an industry. Each state links to our guide
to starting a business there.

Where each trade pays most — and least

• Childcare Workers (SOC 39-9011): highest in District of Columbia ($22.76/hr), lowest in Mississippi ($10.60/hr).
• Maids & Housekeeping Cleaners (SOC 37-2012): highest in Hawaii ($24.81/hr), lowest in Mississippi ($12.19/hr).
• Janitors & Cleaners, Except Maids & Housekeeping Cleaners (SOC 37-2011): highest in Massachusetts ($21.91/hr), lowest in Mississippi ($13.64/hr).
• Cooks, Restaurant (SOC 35-2014): highest in Washington ($22.50/hr), lowest in Louisiana ($13.97/hr).
• Hairdressers, Hairstylists, & Cosmetologists (SOC 39-5012): highest in Washington ($28.61/hr), lowest in Louisiana ($12.51/hr) (no published figure in 1 state).
• Landscaping & Groundskeeping Workers (SOC 37-3011): highest in District of Columbia ($23.46/hr), lowest in Mississippi ($15.21/hr).
• Tree Trimmers & Pruners (SOC 37-3013): highest in Minnesota ($37.24/hr), lowest in Nebraska ($18.94/hr) (no published figure in 2 states).
• HVAC Mechanics & Installers (SOC 49-9021): highest in District of Columbia ($40.57/hr), lowest in Arkansas ($23.13/hr).
• Massage Therapists (SOC 31-9011): highest in Alaska ($64.87/hr), lowest in Louisiana ($17.54/hr) (no published figure in 1 state).
• Private Detectives & Investigators (SOC 33-9021): highest in Oregon ($36.77/hr), lowest in Mississippi ($18.78/hr) (no published figure in 2 states).

Median hourly wages, all 50 states and D.C.

— means BLS published no figure for that state and occupation (sample too small).
Figures are medians — half of covered workers earn more, half less. Source field:
OEWS H_MEDIAN.

Reading the table as a business owner

Once you have a wage budget, price the employee coverage for your actual operation. Our cleaning-business insurance guide and HVAC insurance guide explain workers’ compensation and quote preparation for two of the trades in this table.

Use our cleaning employee cost calculator to separate wages, employer costs and billable time. It includes state wage benchmarks and adjustable assumptions for insurance, supplies and overhead.

Wages also have to keep up with prices. See where paychecks are losing to inflation.

• Wages are a price-floor input, not a full cost model. A cleaning business in Massachusetts competing
  for workers near a $21+ median cannot price jobs like one in Mississippi — but bids also need payroll taxes,
  benefits, travel, and margin. The wage column is the occupation median, not a turnkey burden rate.
• The spread is the story. The same occupation routinely pays 50–80%
  more in the highest-wage state than the lowest — often a bigger geographic spread than
  licensing fees alone.
• Owner-heavy trades read differently. Massage therapists and private investigators are often
  self-employed; for those, the wage is closer to what the market pays per hour of employee labor
  than to a forecast of owner profit.
• Occupation ≠ industry. Each column is one SOC code, not every job title inside daycare,
  cleaning, food service, or HVAC contracting. Crosswalks to our
  salon and HVAC guides (and the other
  state-by-state guides) are thematic, not a claim that OEWS equals industry payroll.

Frequently asked questions

What do these wage figures measure?

Each figure is the median hourly wage (BLS OEWS field H_MEDIAN) for one detailed SOC occupation in that state, from the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics estimates — a federal survey of what employers report paying. Half of covered workers in the occupation earn more than the median, half earn less. These are not take-home pay, not total compensation (benefits and overtime are outside this median hourly wage), and not an all-occupation average for an industry.

Which occupations are in the table?

Ten detailed SOC codes chosen to match this site’s service-business guides: 39-9011 (Childcare Workers), 37-2012 (Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners), 37-2011 (Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners), 35-2014 (Cooks, Restaurant), 39-5012 (Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists), 37-3011 (Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers), 37-3013 (Tree Trimmers and Pruners), 49-9021 (Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers), 31-9011 (Massage Therapists), 33-9021 (Private Detectives and Investigators). They are occupation wages, not industry-wide wages for every job in daycare, cleaning, food service, or similar.

Why are some cells blank?

BLS suppresses estimates where the sample is too small to publish reliably — common for small occupations in small states, like tree trimmers or private investigators. A blank means BLS published no figure, not that the occupation doesn’t exist there.

Are these what business owners earn?

No — these are employee wages: what you would pay staff, or earn working for someone else. Owner income works differently (draws and profit rather than a wage). Staff wages are often a large cost line in a service business plan, which is why the state-to-state spread matters, but they are not a forecast of owner take-home.

How current is this data?

This page is a fixed edition of the May 2025 OEWS state estimates (BLS file oesm25st). Editorial review September 15, 2026. A future May vintage would need a new explicit edition and full re-check before replacing these figures — this page is not auto-refreshed.

Related research: compare childcare worker wages with what parents pay — daycare wage vs parent price study — and how many hours of these median wages cover a modest apartment in service wages vs Fair Market Rent. For the largest metros (QCEW industry pay × HUD metro 2BR FMR), see metro service pay vs Fair Market Rent. For how those nominal wages look after BEA regional price parities, see regional price parities vs wages and daycare.

For industry average annual pay and employees per establishment (BLS QCEW private 2024) — not OEWS occupation medians — see employer pay and typical location size by state (QCEW).

For whether state unemployment changes track service payroll hiring (cleaning, landscaping, HVAC, daycare) — distinct from wage levels — see unemployment vs service hiring by state.

For where private payroll sits in small establishments (QCEW size classes) rather than occupation wage levels, see where employment lives in tiny shops by state.

For where the same OEWS occupations are most concentrated (location quotients and jobs per 1,000 employed) rather than median pay, see trade labor density by state.

Sources

• BLS — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 state estimates —
  state tables and the
  OEWS tables page (file oesm25st)
• BLS — OEWS technical notes, May 2025 —
  methodology

Minimum wage research: See every state’s 2027 minimum wage, how the 2027 minimum wages compare with what workers earn, minimum wage gaps between neighboring states, and what the minimum wage buys after local prices.

Dataset license and reuse

Reuse terms, version September 27, 2026. You may quote our original findings and summary statistics with credit to StartBusinessByState.com and a link to this page. Keep the source names, data years, units and relevant limitations with quoted figures.

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