Commercial Pilots · SOC 53-2012

Highest-Paying Metro Areas for Commercial Pilotss

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025U.S. metropolitan areas

Metro areas ranked by published median annual wage for commercial pilots. Areas where BLS suppressed the median are not ranked (4 such areas are excluded here). Higher medians often track higher living costs — this is a pay comparison, not a ranking of where the job is “best”.

Top 25 of 157 metro areas

Commercial Pilots: metro areas with the highest published median annual wages, May 2025
#	Metro area	Median annual	Employment	Per 1,000 jobs
1	Waterbury-Shelton, CT	$315,450	130	0.8
2	Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh, NY	$280,630	50	0.2
3	Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA	$274,730	130	0.7
4	Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT	$232,600	90	0.2
5	New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$225,900	1,210	0.1
6	Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT	$211,350	100	0.2
7	Trenton-Princeton, NJ	$205,700	50	0.2
8	Midland, TX	$198,480	50	0.4
9	Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN	$193,940	430	0.6
10	Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI	$177,730	420	0.5
11	Columbus, OH	$175,690	1,410	1.3
12	Port St. Lucie, FL	$173,100	140	0.8
13	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$173,070	380	0.2
14	Wilmington, NC	$172,320	40	0.2
15	Lexington Park, MD	$171,560	60	0.8
16	Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ	$170,600	50	0.1
17	Colorado Springs, CO	$167,310	Not published	Not published
18	Cleveland, OH	$166,520	600	0.6
19	Boulder, CO	$165,780	40	0.2
20	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	$160,160	1,810	0.4
21	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$159,420	200	0.2
22	Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$158,670	310	0.1
23	Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN	$157,420	840	0.2
24	Manchester-Nashua, NH	$157,210	40	0.2
25	Oklahoma City, OK	$156,760	200	0.3

Full state and metro tables, the national distribution, and the pay map are on the Commercial Pilots overview.

About this data. Estimates are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, May 2025 release, retrieved from bls.gov/oes/tables.htm on July 24, 2026. OEWS estimates describe metropolitan/nonmetropolitan areas and states — not city limits — and are not designed for year-over-year comparisons. See BLS methodology, our plain-English methodology, and sources. CitySalaryData is independent and not affiliated with BLS.