HVAC Salaries and Job Growth by State

| Last Updated: June 11, 2021

Interested in learning about your earnings potential, cost of buying a home and job growth in your state? Thinking of moving and want to know how well you can do as an HVAC technician in a different state? We’ve compiled the information here!

In this table we look at some of the important factors in making a living in HVAC.

Best State to Work In

How To Use This Table

Let’s look at what we’ve included here. You’ll notice that you can sort the table by any of the columns by simply clicking the column header.

Hourly Mean Wage – this is the average that an HVAC technician gets paid per hour in each state.

Annual Mean Wage – this is the average earnings for a HVAC technician working full-time during the entire year (40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year).

Zillow Median House Value – the website Zillow uses an extremely complicated formula to try to calculate a median home value. They take into account a lot of factors, like size of the home, seasonal changes, and much more. If you’d like to look at their methodology more deeply, check out their explanation here.

Salary as % of Median Home Value – we arrive at this number by divided the “Annual Mean Wage” by the “Zillow Median House Value”. A higher percentage in this column means that buying a home is more affordable. That is, every year you earn a higher percentage of the value of a home. This is one indicator of how affordable an area is.

2014 Jobs – the US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics reports there were about this many HVAC jobs in the state as of 2014.

2024 Jobs Projected –  the US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics expects that by 2024, there will be a total of this many positions for HVAC. Of course, these are only projections, not guarantees. Many factors could create differences.

Average Annual Openings – this is a rough number of jobs available each year. This includes new jobs plus the rough number of replacements needed due to retirement, career changes and other factors.

10 Year Growth Rate – this marks the projected increase or decrease in total HVAC  jobs from 2014 to 2024. A higher percentage means the field is growing more rapidly.

Rank – we used the other statistics here to create an overall rank for each state.

Of course, there are many other factors you will want to consider besides those we’ve been able to include. If you’d like more information about the cost of living between different cities, you might want to check a site like Numbeo, where users can add the cost of many different items and compare them to other locations throughout the US and worldwide.

State
Hourly Mean Wage (1)
Annual Mean Wage (1)
Zillow Median House Value
Salary as % of Median Home
2014 Jobs (3)
2024 Jobs Projected (3)
Average Annual Openings (3)
10 yr Growth Rate (2014-2024)
Rank
Alabama
$17.73
$36,880
$127,000
29%
5080
5790
150
14%
30
Alaska
$30.90
$64,280
$268,800
24%
340
360
10
6%
35
Arizona
$20.04
$41,680
$225,000
19%
6330
9590
420
52%
26
Arkansas
$17.01
$35,380
$121,900
29%
2580
3000
80
16%
38
California
$24.58
$51,120
$505,800
10%
22300
29400
1050
32%
9
Colorado
$26.08
$54,250
$336,500
16%
4960
7110
340
43%
20
Connecticut
$26.28
$54,660
$246,600
22%
3550
3850
80
8%
21
Delaware
$24.00
$49,910
$216,000
23%
2000
2360
70
18%
32
Florida
$31.79
$66,120
$209,900
32%
27700
36950
1350
33%
1
Georgia
$18.10
$37,650
$157,600
24%
8850
10630
310
20%
16
Hawaii
$20.32
$42,270
$605,600
7%
870
950
20
9%
51
Idaho
$29.49
$61,330
$194,100
32%
1340
1890
85
41%
23
Illinois
$17.89
$37,220
$170,500
22%
7700
8890
240
15%
28
Indiana
$25.05
$52,100
$121,700
43%
5130
6030
170
18%
5
Iowa
$20.22
$42,050
$125,300
34%
3320
3940
110
19%
24
Kansas
$22.99
$47,820
$125,500
38%
2840
3010
90
6%
16
Kentucky
$21.59
$44,910
$135,400
33%
7270
9070
290
25%
8
Louisiana
$18.33
$38,130
$145,200
26%
5440
5940
130
9%
29
Maine
$19.18
$39,900
$195,000
20%
2160
2170
30
%
44
Maryland
$21.97
$45,700
$271,100
17%
6260
7210
250
15%
24
Massachusetts
$26.02
$54,120
$377,200
14%
8460
8720
150
3%
14
Michigan
$27.17
$56,520
$134,700
42%
7490
8660
230
16%
2
Minnesota
$21.88
$45,510
$209,700
22%
2580
2760
60
7%
36
Mississippi
$24.98
$51,960
$113,800
46%
1950
2080
40
7%
18
Missouri
$16.07
$33,420
$140,800
24%
4870
5510
140
13%
34
Montana
$22.16
$46,100
$202,600
23%
740
1033
50
40%
43
Nebraska
$19.49
$40,530
$150,900
27%
2000
2380
70
19%
37
Nevada
$21.18
$44,050
$241,400
18%
2690
3820
150
42%
39
New Hampshire
$26.23
$54,550
$247,500
22%
1390
1420
20
2%
33
New Jersey
$24.30
$50,540
$307,100
16%
10830
12720
350
17%
11
New Mexico
$26.91
$55,960
$174,100
32%
1130
1270
30
12%
27
New York
$19.52
$40,590
$303,300
13%
14480
18320
610
27%
22
North Carolina
$24.06
$50,040
$162,500
31%
12170
14150
380
16%
4
North Dakota
$18.79
$39,090
$201,300
19%
960
940
20
-2%
50
Ohio
$24.69
$51,350
$128,600
40%
9890
11360
300
15%
3
Oklahoma
$21.23
$44,150
$115,300
38%
4200
4860
130
16%
18
Oregon
$20.34
$42,300
$313,100
14%
2990
3480
100
16%
41
Pennsylvania
$22.17
$46,120
$161,500
29%
13340
14860
360
11%
5
Rhode Island
$22.12
$46,000
$255,700
18%
630
710
20
13%
49
South Carolina
$26.87
$55,890
$145,400
38%
4410
5070
130
15%
7
South Dakota
$18.86
$39,220
$174,700
22%
1140
1300
30
14%
46
Tennessee
$21.86
$45,460
$143,300
32%
5730
6530
230
14%
13
Texas
$19.09
$39,710
$169,500
23%
22890
29630
1020
29%
10
Utah
$19.52
$40,610
$252,600
16%
2870
3840
140
34%
41
Vermont
$22.60
$47,010
$249,500
19%
850
850
10
%
45
Virginia
$22.83
$47,480
$245,200
19%
10410
11810
300
13%
11
Washington
$22.77
$47,370
$340,200
14%
4920
6010
190
22%
31
Washington DC
$26.09
$54,280
$547,000
10%
340
370
10
9%
48
West Virginia
$17.00
$35,370
$100,200
35%
1550
1540
40
-1%
40
Wisconsin
$22.48
$46,750
$166,900
28%
4920
5510
140
12%
15
Wyoming
$21.57
$44,860
$194,700
23%
580
610
10
5%
46

Sources

  1. https://www.sokanu.com/careers/hvac-technician/salary/
  2. https://www.zillow.com/research/data/
  3. https://www.projectionscentral.com/Projections/LongTerm


My name is Bob Wells and I am a retired HVAC tech from Washington state. I am currently retired and no longer do much with HVAC, however, I feel like I have a lot of knowledge in the subject and I wanted to create a website where I could talk about what I've learned and help upcoming HVAC techs. Find more info about me and HVAC Training 101.