One of our daily housing videos looks at average weekly pay, with Pennsylvania as the state in the spotlight. This page lists every figure on the chart exactly as the publisher reported it, explains how the figure is built and what it leaves out, and links to the source.
Average weekly pay, first quarter of 2026
The figures come from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, known as QCEW, published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rows always appear in the same fixed order, so the chart is a list, not a ranking.
- · Florida: $1,518
- · Georgia: $1,539
- · Maryland: $1,676
- · Pennsylvania: $1,550
- · Texas: $1,646
- · United States: $1,654
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, QCEW · first quarter 2026, preliminary · released Aug 28, 2026.
How the figure is built
Each figure is the average weekly wage across all jobs covered by unemployment insurance, in every industry, private and public employers together. BLS builds it from the quarterly reports employers file: the total wages paid in the quarter, divided by the average number of jobs over the quarter's three months, divided by the thirteen weeks in the quarter. Wages include bonuses and other cash payments.
Pay per job, not per person
Part-time jobs are counted along with full-time jobs, and workers on paid vacation are counted too. A person on the payroll of more than one employer is counted by each of those employers, so the figure is pay per job, not the pay of one worker or one household. It is not take-home pay, and it is an average, not a median.
BLS notes that the mix of full-time and part-time work, the mix of higher- and lower-paying jobs, and the number of pay dates that fall inside a quarter all move the average. Jobs that unemployment insurance does not cover, such as the self-employed, are not in it.
Preliminary figures
These figures are labeled preliminary, and the chart says so in its source line. A later release can revise a preliminary figure. The release date on the chart shows which release the figures come from. The BLS release calendar lists the second-quarter 2026 data for Dec 2, 2026.
Why the states sit side by side
Average weekly pay is a dollar amount: a week of pay in one state is measured in the same dollars as a week of pay in another. It is not adjusted for differences in living costs between states. So the chart can show every state at once, side by side on the same scale, with the U.S. figure from the same source and quarter below them. A state's place in the list never depends on its figure.
Where to go next
The Sources list below links the publisher's page. Counts vs. dollars explains why some charts show every state and others show one, how to read our housing charts walks through the source line, and our property search is open whenever you want to look at homes.