Data Center Salary by State 2026: How Much Do Employees Make?
Quick answer: Amazon posts the same hourly band, $30.91 to $54.18, for data center technicians in nine states, from Ohio to Virginia to Washington. Mississippi is the only state priced differently, at exactly 90 percent of that band. Every figure below carries its requisition number and the date it was read, September 17, 2026.
A ranking of the best paying states sounds like it should be simple. Pull the average for each state, sort the list, done. The trouble starts the moment you ask where those averages come from, because no federal agency measures this job and nobody else is counting.
So this page does the one thing that can be checked. It reads what a large employer publishes, state by state, on a single day, and prints the requisition number beside every band.
The answer is uncomfortable for a “best paying states” list. For the same job title, at the same employer, on the same day, the posted pay in Texas and the posted pay in Virginia are identical to the penny. So is Ohio. So is Georgia. So is Pennsylvania, Indiana, Oregon, Arizona and Washington.
State turns out to be the weakest of the three things that move your pay. The employer matters more. The track you are on, server floor against critical facilities, matters more than that. We show all three below.
Key numbers on this page
Six figures, each with the document it came from and the date it was read. Nothing here comes from a salary website.
| Figure | What it measures | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| $30.91 to $54.18 / hr | Amazon data center technician band, identical in nine states | Amazon requisition 10493571, requisition 10505452 and requisition 10476300, read September 17, 2026 |
| 90.0% | What Amazon posts in Canton, Mississippi against the same band in Texas and Virginia, inside one posting | Same requisitions, Mississippi line, read September 17, 2026 |
| 87.0 and 107.0 | Price level in Mississippi and in Washington, US average = 100 | BEA Regional Price Parity, Table SARPP, 2024 data, released February 19, 2026 |
| $99,130 | Median annual pay, network and computer systems administrators, one of the nearest measured occupations | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 wages |
| 25.1% and 120,400 jobs | Projected growth for computing infrastructure providers, data processing and web hosting, 2025 to 2035 | BLS Employment Projections, released August 27, 2026 |
| Zero | Federal occupation codes that measure a data center technician | Standard Occupational Classification, 2018 revision |
How much do data center employees make
Hourly floor staff at Amazon, the employer that publishes the most, sit between $25.19 and $65.91 an hour depending on the role and the site. That is the full readable spread across every US posting we could open on September 17, 2026.
Broken into the two job families Amazon actually posts:
| Job family, as Amazon titles it | Posted hourly band | Where | Requisition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Center Technician, DCC Communities | $27.98 to $48.99 | Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington | requisition 10490636, requisition 10538991 |
| Data Center Technician, DCC Communities | $30.91 to $54.18 | Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington | requisition 10493571, requisition 10505452, requisition 10476300 |
| Data Center Technician, DCC Communities | $25.19 to $44.08 | Canton, Mississippi | requisition 10517116 |
| Engineering Operation Technician, DCC Communities | $32.88 to $57.50 | Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia | requisition 10493538 |
| Engineering Operation Technician, DCC Communities | $37.64 to $65.91 | Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia | requisition 10507103 |
| Data Center Engineering Operations Technician, DCC Communities, AWS | $37.64 to $65.91 | Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia | requisition 10544696 |
There is no national average for this job, and we will not publish one. The federal government does not measure the occupation, so no agency produces an average, and any average you see was built by a salary website out of self-reported entries. Our guide to data center technician salary works through that in more detail.
Amazon does not print a posting date on these pages, so the only honest date we can give you is the date we read them. That date is September 17, 2026, and it is on every figure.
The same job pays the same in nine states
Here is the part nobody else has published. Amazon lists several states inside a single job posting, each with its own pay line. If a state premium existed, it would show up right there, inside one compensation block, in the same posting, on the same day.
It does not. The lines are character for character identical, except Mississippi.
| Requisition | Role as posted | Band on every listed state | States on that band | Mississippi line in the same posting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| requisition 10493571 | Data Center Technician, DCC Communities | $30.91 to $54.18 / hr | GA, IN, OH, OR, PA, TX, VA | Canton $27.83 to $48.75 |
| requisition 10505452 | Data Center Technician, DCC Communities | $30.91 to $54.18 / hr | AZ, IN, OH, OR, PA, TX, VA | Canton $27.83 to $48.75 |
| requisition 10490636 | Data Center Technician, DCC Communities | $27.98 to $48.99 / hr | GA, IN, OH, OR, PA, TX, VA | Canton and Vicksburg $25.19 to $44.08 |
| requisition 10493538 | Engineering Operation Technician, DCC Communities | $32.88 to $57.50 / hr | GA, IN, OH, OR, PA, TX, VA | Canton $29.61 to $51.73 |
| requisition 10507103 | Engineering Operation Technician, DCC Communities | $37.64 to $65.91 / hr | OH, OR, TX, VA | Canton $33.89 to $59.32 |
| requisition 10544696 | Data Center Engineering Operations Technician, DCC Communities, AWS | $37.64 to $65.91 / hr | MO, OH, OR, PA, TX, VA | No Mississippi line on this posting |
All six read September 17, 2026. Garland, Texas and Sterling, Virginia sit in the same compensation block at the same number, six times over, across both job families.
Washington pays the same band too, on its own postings
Washington is worth its own line because it is the most expensive state on this list. Amazon posts no floor technician roles in Seattle or Bellevue. Its Washington data halls are in the Columbia Basin, and the bands there match the bands in Texas exactly.
| Requisition | Role as posted | Location | Posted band |
|---|---|---|---|
| requisition 10538991 | Data Center Technician | Moses Lake, WA | $27.98 to $48.99 / hr |
| requisition 10494756 | DCO Technician III, DCC Communities | Moses Lake, WA | $27.98 to $48.99 / hr |
| requisition 10476300 | Data Center Technician, West Region | Attalia, WA | $30.91 to $54.18 / hr |
| requisition 10403125 | Engineering Operations Technician, PDX54 | Attalia, WA, on a posting based in Boardman, Oregon | $32.00 to $57.00 / hr |
Moses Lake, Washington and Garland, Texas are posted at the same $27.98 to $48.99. Attalia, Washington and Garland, Texas are posted at the same $30.91 to $54.18. Washington costs 10 percent more to live in than Texas and pays the same number.
One honest limit on this. The nine-state match inside a single compensation block covers Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. Washington matches those bands on separate postings, not inside the same block. We are telling you which is which.
Data center salary by state, adjusted for what things cost
Identical pay in nine states means the only thing left that changes your real income is what a dollar buys where you live. The federal government measures that. The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes Regional Price Parity, a price level for each state against a national average of 100.
Take the $30.91 to $54.18 band and divide it by each state price level. That gives you what the same paycheck is actually worth.
| State | Amazon posted band | State price level, 2024 | Band in national-average dollars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio | $30.91 to $54.18 | 92.8 | $33.31 to $58.38 |
| Indiana | $30.91 to $54.18 | 93.3 | $33.13 to $58.07 |
| Georgia | $30.91 to $54.18 | 96.3 | $32.10 to $56.26 |
| Mississippi | $27.83 to $48.75 | 87.0 | $31.99 to $56.03 |
| Texas | $30.91 to $54.18 | 97.1 | $31.83 to $55.80 |
| Pennsylvania | $30.91 to $54.18 | 97.6 | $31.67 to $55.51 |
| Arizona | $30.91 to $54.18 | 100.7 | $30.70 to $53.80 |
| Virginia | $30.91 to $54.18 | 101.1 | $30.57 to $53.59 |
| Oregon | $30.91 to $54.18 | 103.4 | $29.89 to $52.40 |
| Washington | $30.91 to $54.18 | 107.0 | $28.89 to $50.64 |
Price levels are BEA Regional Price Parity, Table SARPP, 2024 data, all items, released February 19, 2026. The right-hand column is our own arithmetic on those two published numbers, not a figure anybody publishes.
Ohio is worth 15.3 percent more than Washington on the identical posted band. That is the real state gap, and it runs in the opposite direction from every ranking that puts Washington and Virginia at the top.
Mississippi is the one state Amazon prices differently, and it still comes out ahead
Amazon applies one adjustment, and it applies it to Mississippi. The factor is flat and it is visible inside single postings:
| Requisition | Standard band | Canton, Mississippi band | Mississippi as a share of the standard band |
|---|---|---|---|
| requisition 10493571 | $30.91 to $54.18 | $27.83 to $48.75 | 90.0% floor, 90.0% ceiling |
| requisition 10505452 | $30.91 to $54.18 | $27.83 to $48.75 | 90.0% floor, 90.0% ceiling |
| requisition 10490636 | $27.98 to $48.99 | $25.19 to $44.08 | 90.0% floor, 90.0% ceiling |
| requisition 10493538 | $32.88 to $57.50 | $29.61 to $51.73 | 90.1% floor, 90.0% ceiling |
| requisition 10507103 | $37.64 to $65.91 | $33.89 to $59.32 | 90.0% floor, 90.0% ceiling |
Five postings, two job families, four different base bands, and the same 0.90 comes out every time at both ends. Amazon is multiplying a base band by a fixed factor, not pricing Mississippi from scratch.
Now put the price level beside it. Mississippi sits at 87.0 and Texas at 97.1 on the BEA scale. Multiply the pay cut by the price advantage: 0.90 times 97.1 divided by 87.0 comes to 1.004.
The 10 percent pay cut and Mississippi’s 10 percent lower prices cancel each other out. Mississippi sits 10.4 percent below Texas on the BEA price scale and Amazon pays 10.0 percent less there. A technician on the Canton band is roughly 0.5 percent better off in purchasing power than the same technician in Garland, Texas. The nominal gap is real. The real gap is nothing.
This is why a state ranking is the wrong tool for the question. At the employer posting in all of these states at once, the gap across seven of them is zero, Mississippi is 10 percent below, and that 10 percent disappears the moment you spend it locally.
Data center operator salary
“Data center operator” is the only place the phrase “data center” appears anywhere in the federal occupation classification. It sits as an illustrative example under code 15-1299, Computer Occupations, All Other, alongside Computer Console Operator and Computer Laboratory Technician.
An illustrative example is not a measured occupation. The government does not publish a wage, an employment count or a projection for it. So there is no such thing as an official data center operator salary, and anyone quoting one to two decimal places built it somewhere else.
What employers post under operator-style titles is the same work as the technician titles above. Amazon calls it DCO Technician III on requisition 10494756 at Moses Lake, Washington, at $27.98 to $48.99 an hour. That is the honest answer to the question.
Data center specialist salary
No large operator we could read posts a title called “data center specialist” on the data hall floor. The titles in use are Data Center Technician, DCO Technician, Engineering Operation Technician and Data Center Engineering Operations Technician. If a recruiter uses “specialist” with you, ask which of those four the job actually is, because the bands differ by more than $17 an hour at the ceiling.
The nearest occupations the federal government does measure, with May 2025 median annual pay:
| Federal code | Occupation | Median annual pay | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15-1231 | Computer network support specialists | $76,220 | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| 15-1232 | Computer user support specialists | $61,860 | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| 15-1244 | Network and computer systems administrators | $99,130 | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| 47-2111 | Electricians | $63,190 | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| 49-9021 | Heating, air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics and installers | $61,010 | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
These are reference points for the kind of work, not data center wages. Wages are from the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, released May 15, 2026. Treat them as the floor the general labour market sets, not as what a data center pays.
What data center jobs pay by role
Role moves your pay far more than state does. Here are the same Amazon bands converted to a yearly figure at 2,080 hours, which is 40 hours a week for 52 weeks. The yearly column is our arithmetic on the posted hourly rate, not a number Amazon publishes.
| Role as posted | Posted hourly band | At 2,080 hours a year | Requisition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Center Technician, DCC Communities | $27.98 to $48.99 | $58,198 to $101,899 | requisition 10490636 |
| Data Center Technician, DCC Communities | $30.91 to $54.18 | $64,293 to $112,694 | requisition 10493571 |
| Engineering Operation Technician, DCC Communities | $32.88 to $57.50 | $68,390 to $119,600 | requisition 10493538 |
| Engineering Operation Technician, DCC Communities | $37.64 to $65.91 | $78,291 to $137,093 | requisition 10507103 |
| Data Center Technician, DCC Communities, Canton MS only | $25.19 to $44.08 | $52,395 to $91,686 | requisition 10517116 |
Two rows in that table carry the same job title and different pay. That is not a mistake in the table. Amazon runs more than one live band for the same title at the same time, and which one you are offered depends on the posting you apply to, not the state you live in.
The gap from the bottom of the lowest technician band to the top of the engineering operations band is about $85,000 a year, at one employer, in one country, on one day. No state difference on this page comes anywhere near that.
Two more things the posted band leaves out. Shift differentials are real on this job and Amazon does not print them. Sign-on payments and stock grants are real at every hyperscaler and none of them print the amount. So a posted band is the reliable part of the package and the rest is not readable at all.
For the engineer and specialist tiers above this, see our data center engineer salary. For the commissioning side, see our data center commissioning engineer salary.
Which states let you read a salary at all
A posted pay range exists because a law makes the employer print one. Twelve states now require a range inside the job posting itself.
| State | In force since |
|---|---|
| Colorado | January 1, 2021 |
| California | January 1, 2023 |
| Washington | January 1, 2023 |
| New York | September 17, 2023 |
| Hawaii | January 1, 2024 |
| Maryland | October 1, 2024 |
| Illinois | January 1, 2025 |
| Minnesota | January 1, 2025 |
| New Jersey | June 1, 2025 |
| Vermont | July 1, 2025 |
| Massachusetts | October 29, 2025 |
| Virginia | July 1, 2026 |
Virginia is the new one, and it is the one that matters most to this industry. Virginia Code 40.1-28.7:12 took effect on July 1, 2026, which means the largest data center market in the world became readable by law this summer. Maine joined the list on July 29, 2026 for employers with ten or more staff.
Three states require disclosure but not in the posting, so do not expect a number on the ad: Connecticut on request or at offer, Nevada after an interview, and Rhode Island on request. Connecticut passed a broader posting rule in May 2026 and we could not confirm an in-force date from a state source, so treat it as unsettled.
Here is the correction to the obvious conclusion. Amazon printed a range on every single posting we opened, in every state, including Texas and Mississippi, which require nothing. Google, on postings read September 16, 2026, prints one national band with the literal prefix “US:” and no state variation at all. The law tells you which small and mid-size employers you can price. It does not explain the two biggest publishers, who disclose everywhere as company policy.
Who actually runs the data halls in each state
Pay follows the employer, so it helps to know who is hiring where. These are operators with live US sites in the states above, named from their own postings or their own site lists.
| State | Operators with data center sites | Towns that show up on postings |
|---|---|---|
| Virginia | Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Equinix, QTS, Digital Realty, Iron Mountain, Google | Ashburn, Sterling, Manassas, Chantilly, Herndon, Fredericksburg, Reston, Boydton |
| Texas | Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Aligned, STACK Infrastructure | Garland, Wilmer, Wink, Austin, San Antonio, Red Oak |
| Ohio | Amazon Web Services, Google, Meta, Vantage Data Centers | Dublin, Plain City, Jeffersonville, New Albany |
| Oregon | Amazon Web Services, Google, Apple, Meta | Hermiston, Boardman, Umatilla, Prineville, The Dalles |
| Washington | Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Sabey Data Centers, Vantage Data Centers, H5 Data Centers | Moses Lake, Attalia, Quincy, East Wenatchee |
| Mississippi | Amazon Web Services, Compass Datacenters | Canton, Madison County, Vicksburg |
| Georgia | Amazon Web Services, Switch, QTS, DataBank, Flexential | Lithia Springs, Douglas County, Atlanta |
| Indiana | Amazon Web Services, Meta, Google | New Carlisle, Jeffersonville, Fort Wayne |
| Pennsylvania | Amazon Web Services, Iron Mountain, TierPoint | Berwick, Fairless Hills, Bucks County |
| Arizona | Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Aligned, EdgeCore, Digital Realty, STACK Infrastructure | Mesa, Goodyear, Phoenix, Chandler |
Site lists are from the operators’ own published location pages and, for Amazon, from the town names printed on the requisitions above. We have deliberately attached no pay figure to any operator we could not read, and the next section says exactly who those are.
Employers we could not read, and the figures we left out
The gaps are part of the answer. Naming them is how you can tell the rest of the page is real.
| Employer | What happened when we tried | What that costs this page |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft | The whole careers host disallows automated reading | The biggest single miss. Microsoft runs sites in Quincy WA, San Antonio TX and Boydton VA and is known to print state-specific bands |
| Meta | HTTP 429 on three attempts | No Ohio, Indiana or Oregon comparison from a second hyperscaler |
| Equinix | Job pages are indexed but the front end renders empty to an automated read | No Ashburn VA against Dallas TX comparison |
| QTS | Its job board returned a server error on our last two attempts | A Manassas VA against Ashburn VA pair we have wanted for two weeks |
| Oracle | Pages render only to metadata depth, so a missing range cannot be told apart from an unreadable one | We will not say Oracle discloses or does not disclose |
| Digital Realty, CyrusOne, Vantage, Aligned, Iron Mountain, STACK, Compass, Flexential, TierPoint, DataBank, CoreWeave | No employer-direct posting page we could open | Every figure that surfaced for these came from a salary website and was thrown away |
One conclusion is weaker than the others because of this. The nine-state finding rests on Amazon, with two Google postings alongside it. Six requisitions with zero variance is strong inside Amazon. A second employer posting in two states would make it stronger, and Microsoft and Equinix were the two we wanted.
We also publish no 50-state table. No primary source supports one. Building one would mean averaging self-reported entries from salary websites, and an average of guesses is still a guess.
What this means if you are picking a state
Stop chasing a state and start chasing three other things.
Chase the track. Moving from the server floor to critical facilities is worth more than any state move on this page. Amazon’s engineering operations band tops out at $65.91 an hour against $54.18 for the server technician band, same employer, same towns.
Chase the posting. Two Data Center Technician postings with the identical title were live on the same day at $27.98 to $48.99 and at $30.91 to $54.18. That is about 10 percent, inside one company, before you cross a state line.
Chase the price level, not the paycheck. If the band is the same in Ohio and in Washington, Ohio is the raise. Our guide to data center salary and cost of living works through that maths for metro areas.
Two more pages worth reading next: Amazon AWS data center technician salary for what one employer publishes across its whole US footprint, and data center technician salary in Texas for the Texas market specifically.
Frequently asked questions
How much do data center employees make?
Amazon, the employer that publishes the most, runs hourly data center floor bands from $25.19 at the lowest floor to $65.91 at the highest ceiling, across every US state we could read on September 17, 2026. Role and posting move that number far more than the state does.
How much do data centers pay employees?
It varies by job family and by posting, not by state. Amazon runs two live server floor bands, $27.98 to $48.99 and $30.91 to $54.18. Engineering operations runs $32.88 to $57.50 and $37.64 to $65.91. Each band is identical on every state listed inside that posting.
How much do data center jobs pay?
Posted bands run from $25.19 an hour at the bottom of an entry technician role in Canton, Mississippi to $65.91 at the top of an engineering operations role. At 2,080 hours a year that is roughly $52,400 to $137,100, which is our arithmetic on the posted hourly rates.
How much do data center technicians make?
Two live Amazon bands carried the identical title on September 17, 2026: $27.98 to $48.99 an hour and $30.91 to $54.18. Canton, Mississippi sits 10 percent below both. No federal agency publishes a median for this job, because no occupation code measures it.
Do data center jobs pay well?
Against the nearest measured occupations, yes. The BLS median for network and computer systems administrators is $99,130 and for electricians is $63,190, both May 2025. Amazon’s engineering operations band reaches about $137,100 a year at 2,080 hours, with no degree required.
What is a data center job salary?
Most data center floor jobs are posted as an hourly band, not a salary. Amazon prints a range on every posting we opened, in every state, including states with no law requiring it. Corporate and engineering roles are posted as annual salary bands instead.
How much do data center workers make?
Hourly floor workers at Amazon: $25.19 to $65.91 an hour depending on the job family and site. That covers Data Center Technician, DCO Technician and Engineering Operation Technician titles. Salaried corporate roles sit separately, for example $79,500 to $139,100 on requisition 10544529.
Which company’s data center jobs pay the best?
We can only rank employers we can read. Amazon publishes a band on every posting. Google publishes one national band with a “US:” prefix, read September 16, 2026. Microsoft, Meta, Equinix and QTS were all unreadable, so we are not ranking them at all.
What state has the highest data center salary in 2026?
No state does, on the evidence we can read. Amazon posts the same band in Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington. Mississippi is 10 percent lower and, after adjusting for state price levels, comes out about 0.5 percent ahead of Texas.
Do data center salaries keep up with cost of living?
Not by design. Amazon posts an identical band in Ohio, at a price level of 92.8, and in Washington, at 107.0. That same paycheck is worth 15.3 percent more in Ohio. Price levels are BEA Regional Price Parity, 2024 data, released February 19, 2026.
How we sourced this page
Every pay figure on this page comes from one of two places: an employer’s own live job posting, quoted with its requisition number and the date we read it, or a federal statistical programme that actually measures the thing being quoted.
No figure on this page came from a crowd-sourced salary site. Glassdoor, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Salary.com, Levels.fyi, PayScale, Comparably, Blind and LinkedIn Salary Insights are all fine places to find an opening. None of them is a place to price a job, because none of them can tell you whether the person who typed in a number holds the job you are looking at.
Where a number is our own arithmetic, we say so in the sentence. The annual columns are posted hourly rates multiplied by 2,080 hours. The constant-dollar column is the posted band divided by the state price level. Amazon publishes neither.
Where no honest figure exists, we left a gap and named it. There is no national average on this page, no 50-state table, and no pay figure for any employer whose postings we could not open.
Federal sources used: the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification for occupation codes, the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook for May 2025 median wages, BLS Employment Projections for the 2025 to 2035 industry outlook, and BEA Regional Price Parity for state price levels, 2024 data released February 19, 2026.
Last updated September 17, 2026. This update re-anchored every pay figure to an Amazon requisition read the same day, added the nine-state band comparison and the constant-dollar table built on BEA state price levels, added Washington bands from Moses Lake and Attalia, and named the six operators whose postings could not be read.
