Each year, the City of Boston publishes payroll data for employees. This dataset contains employee names, job details, and earnings information including base salary, overtime, and total compensation for employees of the City.

See the "Payroll Categories" document below for an explanation of what types of earnings are included in each category.

This statistic shows the median household income in the United States from 1990 to 2023 in 2023 U.S. dollars. The median household income was 80,610 U.S. dollars in 2023, an increase from the previous year. Household incomeThe median household income depicts the income of households, including the income of the householder and all other individuals aged 15 years or over living in the household. Income includes wages and salaries, unemployment insurance, disability payments, child support payments received, regular rental receipts, as well as any personal business, investment, or other kinds of income received routinely. The median household income in the United States varies from state to state. In 2020, the median household income was 86,725 U.S. dollars in Massachusetts, while the median household income in Mississippi was approximately 44,966 U.S. dollars at that time. Household income is also used to determine the poverty line in the United States. In 2021, about 11.6 percent of the U.S. population was living in poverty. The child poverty rate, which represents people under the age of 18 living in poverty, has been growing steadily over the first decade since the turn of the century, from 16.2 percent of the children living below the poverty line in year 2000 to 22 percent in 2010. In 2021, it had lowered to 15.3 percent. The state with the widest gap between the rich and the poor was New York, with a Gini coefficient score of 0.51 in 2019. The Gini coefficient is calculated by looking at average income rates. A score of zero would reflect perfect income equality and a score of one indicates a society where one person would have all the money and all other people have nothing.

In 2024, households in California needed an hourly wage of over 47 U.S. dollars to afford the rent of a two-bedroom apartment. Massachusetts had the second-least affordable two-bedroom apartments, as a household would have to earn at least around 45 U.S. dollars per hour in order to afford rent payments. These figures are considerably higher than the average minimum wage in place in many states. There was no state in which a minimum wage worker could afford rent for the average two-bedroom apartment, if they only worked 40 hours a week. Where are the least affordable counties and metros? The least affordable rents were predominately in Californian counties and metropolitan areas in 2024. District of Columbia has one of the highest minimum wages in the country, which stood at 17 U.S. dollars per hour as of January 2024. Thus, the affordability of two-bedroom apartments highlights how disproportionately high housing costs are in the state.

H-1B visa sponsorship trends for Massachusetts, covering top employers, salary insights, approval rates, and geographic distribution. Explore how work state impacts the U.S. job market under the H-1B program.

In 2023, the real median household income in the state of Alabama was 60,660 U.S. dollars. The state with the highest median household income was Massachusetts, which was 106,500 U.S. dollars in 2023. The average median household income in the United States was at 80,610 U.S. dollars.

As of the 2023/24 academic year, graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had a starting salary of 110,200 U.S. dollars, and a mid-career salary of 196,900 U.S. dollars. Top universities in the United States One of the top universities in the United States, Harvey Mudd College, is located in Claremont, California. Not only do graduates earn a high salaries after graduation, they also pay the most. In the academic year of 2020-2021, Harvey Mudd College was one of the most expensive school by total annual cost. The best university in the United States in 2021 belonged to the University of California, Berkeley. The Ivy League The Ivy League is a group of eight private universities in the Northeastern United States. It is not only a collegiate athletic conference, but also a group of highly respected academic institutions. They are usually regarded as the best eight universities in the United States and the world. They are extremely selective with their admissions process. However, these universities are extremely expensive to attend. Despite the high price tag, students who graduate from Princeton University have the highest early career salary out of all Ivy League attendees in 2021. This is compared to the overall expected starting salaries of recent college graduates across the United States, which was less than 35,000 U.S. dollars.