Environmental Engineers · SOC 17-2081

Highest-Paying Metro Areas for Environmental Engineerss

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

Metro areas ranked by published median annual wage for environmental engineers. Areas where BLS suppressed the median are not ranked (6 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 148 metro areas

Environmental Engineers: metro areas with the highest published median annual wages, May 2025
#	Metro area	Median annual	Employment	Per 1,000 jobs
1	Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL	$142,700	50	0.1
2	Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA	$141,560	100	0.5
3	Redding, CA	$140,570	40	0.6
4	Kennewick-Richland, WA	$140,060	390	3.0
5	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$138,840	550	0.2
6	Stockton-Lodi, CA	$138,700	40	0.2
7	Baton Rouge, LA	$138,000	170	0.4
8	Vallejo, CA	$136,640	30	0.2
9	Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX	$135,240	80	0.5
10	Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA	$133,240	1,200	1.1
11	Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA	$130,270	30	0.3
12	San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA	$129,780	60	0.5
13	Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$129,390	1,040	0.4
14	Decatur, AL	$129,290	50	0.9
15	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$128,410	1,050	0.5
16	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$127,900	890	0.1
17	Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX	$127,340	690	0.2
18	Columbus, OH	$127,190	130	0.1
19	Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	$127,080	500	0.4
20	Salinas, CA	$126,670	30	0.2
21	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	$126,650	370	0.1
22	Gainesville, FL	$126,440	50	0.3
23	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$125,550	180	0.2
24	Corpus Christi, TX	$125,330	30	0.2
25	Bakersfield-Delano, CA	$124,920	50	0.2

Full state and metro tables, the national distribution, and the pay map are on the Environmental Engineers 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.