Network Administrator Salary in 2026: National, by State, City, Specialty & Real Value

A network administrator in the United States earns a median of $99,130 a year, about $47.66 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Pay runs from roughly $62,640 at the 10th percentile to $155,050 at the 90th, and it swings further once you account for state, metro, setting, specialty, cost of living, and tax. About 314,340 network and systems administrators work nationwide. This guide is the complete picture: national and percentile pay, all 50 states ranked by real (cost-adjusted) value, top metros, settings, specialties, take-home after tax, the path in, the return on the degree, and answers to the questions people ask most.

National pay overview

The national median for network and systems administrators is $99,130 a year ($47.66 an hour), with a mean of $103,680. The full wage curve, from entry to senior:

Percentile	Annual	Hourly
10th (entry)	$62,640	$30.12
25th	$78,010	$37.50
50th (median)	$99,130	$47.66
75th	$126,640	$60.88
90th (senior)	$155,050	$74.54

The gap from the 10th to the 90th percentile is about $92,410. A single national number hides that range, which is why the rest of this guide breaks pay down by every factor that moves it, and then translates the headline into cost-adjusted, after-tax dollars.

The mean of $103,680 sits above the median, which tells you the top of the field pulls the average up: a meaningful share of network and systems administrators earn well into the upper percentiles through specialty, setting, geography, and seniority. The practical question is what you can earn given where you work, what you specialize in, and how you structure your hours, which matters far more than the field-wide average. Each section below answers one piece of that.

Pay by experience

BLS does not publish pay by years of experience, but the percentiles map closely to a career arc:

Stage	Typical percentile	Annual
New graduate	10th to 25th	$62,640 to $78,010
Mid-career	~50th	around $99,130
Experienced	~75th	around $126,640
Senior / specialized / lead	90th+	$155,050 and up

The climb from new graduate to senior is roughly $92,410. Early raises tend to come fastest as you move off new-grad pay; by mid-career the curve flattens, and the people who keep climbing usually do so by specializing, switching to a higher-paying setting or state, taking on lead and management duties, or adding hours through overtime and extra work. Geography and setting can outweigh experience entirely: an experienced network admin in a low-paying state can earn less than a new graduate in a top-paying one.

Salary by state: all 50 states ranked by real value

This is the table most network administrator salary pages leave out. Below are every state and Washington, D.C., ranked by real value (the median adjusted for that state’s cost of living (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024)) rather than by sticker pay. A high-paying state with high costs can leave you worse off than a moderate-paying, low-cost one. Tap a linked state for the full local breakdown.

#	State	Median (nominal)	Cost level (US=100)	Real value	Employed
1	Maryland	$118,290	105.0	$112,701	9,230
2	Virginia	$109,610	101.1	$108,413	12,430
3	New Jersey	$116,420	108.8	$106,999	9,280
4	Ohio	$97,570	92.8	$105,170	15,130
5	Massachusetts	$110,980	105.8	$104,939	8,270
6	Texas	$101,240	97.1	$104,310	34,840
7	Nevada	$103,440	100.0	$103,462	1,980
8	Minnesota	$101,870	98.6	$103,294	4,550
9	Louisiana	$90,160	88.2	$102,214	1,790
10	Connecticut	$105,880	103.6	$102,191	2,170
11	District of Columbia	$110,970	109.9	$100,973	1,320
12	North Carolina	$95,230	94.3	$100,958	13,850
13	Georgia	$97,170	96.3	$100,911	9,190
14	Rhode Island	$103,100	102.3	$100,802	1,060
15	Colorado	$103,370	103.1	$100,309	8,360
16	Illinois	$100,080	100.0	$100,122	9,820
17	South Carolina	$92,520	93.7	$98,689	3,580
18	Oregon	$102,000	103.4	$98,683	4,880
19	New Mexico	$90,790	92.2	$98,458	1,220
20	New York	$105,810	107.9	$98,044	18,220
21	North Dakota	$86,450	89.0	$97,180	930
22	Washington	$103,910	107.0	$97,100	8,600
23	Utah	$95,820	98.9	$96,921	2,050
24	Kentucky	$87,020	90.2	$96,518	2,800
25	Michigan	$92,750	96.2	$96,397	6,900
26	Iowa	$84,500	87.8	$96,283	3,110
27	New Hampshire	$100,230	104.2	$96,222	1,660
28	Idaho	$91,880	95.5	$96,215	1,010
29	California	$106,440	110.7	$96,134	26,170
30	Tennessee	$88,100	91.9	$95,896	5,070
31	Oklahoma	$83,990	87.8	$95,614	2,580
32	Alaska	$97,500	102.4	$95,253	920
33	Delaware	$94,200	99.8	$94,381	850
34	Nebraska	$84,700	90.1	$94,004	1,560
35	Arkansas	$81,590	86.9	$93,850	1,750
36	Kansas	$83,340	90.1	$92,530	4,100
37	Hawaii	$101,450	110.0	$92,268	1,490
38	Florida	$95,200	103.4	$92,057	26,890
39	Mississippi	$79,990	87.0	$91,992	1,380
40	Alabama	$81,400	88.8	$91,643	5,040
41	Indiana	$84,550	93.3	$90,593	4,310
42	Arizona	$90,280	100.7	$89,673	5,810
43	Missouri	$80,870	90.8	$89,047	5,810
44	Wisconsin	$83,650	94.1	$88,900	8,470
45	Pennsylvania	$86,140	97.6	$88,284	7,750
46	Vermont	$86,020	98.0	$87,813	560
47	Maine	$83,890	97.0	$86,440	920
48	Montana	$80,950	94.6	$85,530	850
49	South Dakota	$75,010	88.6	$84,675	1,690
50	West Virginia	$74,490	89.5	$83,232	1,510
51	Wyoming	$75,220	92.7	$81,151	610

On real, cost-adjusted value, Maryland leads at $112,701, while Wyoming trails at $81,151. By raw sticker pay the order is different: Maryland ($118,290), New Jersey ($116,420), and Massachusetts ($110,980) pay the most nominally, but several of them slide down the list once high housing and prices are counted. That reordering is the single most useful thing this page does, and it is why national averages and sticker rankings can steer you wrong.

Concrete example of the flip: California ranks #6 by sticker pay ($106,440) but only #29 once its cost level of 111 is applied, because high prices eat the higher salary. Meanwhile Louisiana looks middling on sticker (#31) yet climbs to #9 on real value, since a 90,160-dollar median goes much further at a cost level of 88. If you are willing to relocate, the real-value column, not the sticker column, is the one that should guide the decision.

The geographic pattern: the highest sticker pay clusters on the West Coast and in the Northeast, while the best real value often shows up in lower-cost states in the South, Midwest, and Mountain West where a strong salary meets cheap housing. There is no single best state, only the best fit for where you want to live and what your money will buy there.

Highest-paying metros

Within states, metros drive pay further. The largest network admin job markets by employment, with median pay:

Metro	Median	Employed
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY	$119,390	17,690
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	$103,260	11,740
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC	$125,430	9,920
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$106,290	8,770
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL	$103,170	6,950
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA	$116,770	6,760
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL	$97,180	6,340
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX	$101,430	6,330
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	$101,000	6,140
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$104,440	5,530

The same cost-of-living rule applies inside a state: a higher-paying big metro can lose to a cheaper mid-size city once housing is counted. Big metros also hold the deepest job markets, so they pair the most pay with the most openings, while rural and smaller markets sometimes pay premiums to attract candidates. The state pages work the metro and cost math out city by city.

Salary by work setting

Where network and systems administrators work changes pay as much as geography. National medians by employer type:

Setting	Employed (U.S.)	Median
Computer Systems Design and Related Services	51,700	$101,560
Management of Companies and Enterprises	23,490	$103,810
Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools	17,500	$85,750
Local Government, excluding Schools and Hospitals (OEWS Designation)	17,260	$97,430
Elementary and Secondary Schools	15,530	$85,570
Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services	8,520	$106,200
State Government, excluding Schools and Hospitals (OEWS Designation)	8,430	$94,340

The gap between the highest- and lowest-paying settings is real money over a career, and it usually comes with trade-offs in pace, caseload, autonomy, and schedule rather than in difficulty alone. The largest employer is not always the best payer, so it is worth weighing where the volume of jobs is against where the pay is when you choose a setting.

How it compares to related careers

It helps to see a network administrator beside the roles people weigh against it, with pay set next to the education each requires:

Role	National median	Education
IT Support Specialist	$61,860	Some college / certs
Network Administrator (this role)	$99,130	Bachelor’s or certs
Information Security Analyst	$129,180	Bachelor’s + certs
IT Manager	$175,140	Bachelor’s + experience

Against it support specialist at $61,860, this role pays about $37,270 more for the added schooling. The higher-paid information security analyst ($129,180) sits $30,050 above, but on a longer or different training path. The right comparison is always pay set against the time, cost, and debt of the credential, not pay alone.

Skills, certifications, and what they mean for pay

There is no license for network administration; certifications are the currency. Cisco (CCNA, CCNP), CompTIA (Network+, Security+), and cloud certifications (AWS, Azure) gate the better-paying work, and security and cloud skills increasingly command the premium as on-premises administration declines. A bachelor’s helps, but the certifications and hands-on skills matter more.

Licensing is not just a hurdle, it shapes pay. Where a role can practice more independently or bill for more services, it tends to command more, and license portability between states affects how easily you can chase a higher-paying market. Always confirm the current rules with the relevant state board, since scope and requirements change and vary widely.

Specialties and where the pay is

The clearest move is to specialize where demand is growing: cloud administration and engineering, network security, and DevOps pay above traditional administration and are far more future-proof. Security-analyst and cloud-engineer paths in particular lift both pay and prospects. Large enterprises and high-cost metros pay above the national median.

The practical takeaway: within network and systems administrators, specialty and setting usually move pay more than another year of general experience. The top earners are rarely just the most tenured, they are the ones in the higher-paying focus areas, settings, or leadership and ownership roles.

If you are early in the field, the decisions with the biggest long-run payoff are which specialty to pursue and which setting to enter, because both compound over a career and are easier to choose early than to switch later. A credential that takes a year to earn can pay for itself many times over through higher pay and more job options, which is the same logic the ROI section applies to the degree itself.

What moves the pay

• State and metro, and crucially the cost of living that goes with them, which the real-value table reorders.
• Experience, which lifts pay steadily and then plateaus without a specialty or a step up.
• Work setting and employer, since some settings and employers pay well above others, as the settings table shows.
• Specialty and board certification, a clear premium in most of these fields.
• Hours and structure, since overtime, extra shifts, and contract or travel work can push total pay well above base.

Salary, hourly, and total compensation

The $99,130 median is base pay, and real total compensation often runs higher. Most administrator roles are salaried, with variable pay coming from on-call premiums at some employers and annual bonuses, plus equity at larger and public companies. Pay is steadier than the high-equity software roles, but the upside is more limited unless you pivot into cloud or security. When comparing offers, weigh the whole package, base, any bonus or equity, overtime or premiums where they apply, retirement match, and paid time off, since two offers with the same base can differ by thousands once the rest is counted.

Take-home pay after tax

Two network and systems administrators on the same $99,130 salary keep very different amounts depending on the state. Worked examples on the national median, single filer, 2026 federal plus FICA plus state:

State	Gross	Est. take-home	Effective rate
Texas (no state income tax)	$99,130	$78,124	21.2%
New York	$99,130	$73,224	26.1%
California	$99,130	$72,878	26.5%

That is roughly $5,246 a year more in take-home in no-tax Texas than in California on an identical salary, before cost of living is even counted. Nine states levy no income tax.

Take-home also scales with where you sit on the pay curve. In Texas, an entry-level network admin earning $78,010 nets about $63,266, while a senior one at $155,050 keeps about $116,730, since higher pay pushes more income into higher federal brackets. The effective rate climbs with income, so a raise is worth somewhat less on take-home than on the headline. Every state page includes a full breakdown and a paycheck calculator to run your own number.

How to maximize earnings

• Target a high-real-value state or metro using the table above, not the highest sticker.
• Move into the higher-paying setting and specialty for your field.
• Add board certification or a specialty credential, which pays a clear premium.
• Use overtime, contract, or travel work to lift total pay, and negotiate the full package.
• Consider leadership or ownership for the higher ceiling.

How pay is changing

Wages for network and systems administrators have broadly risen with demand and inflation, but the real story is in the mix: pay grows fastest where labor is scarce and where the role takes on more responsibility. Watch three things if you are planning a career here, the spread between settings (which keeps widening as specialized and higher-skill roles pull ahead), the value of cost-of-living arbitrage (a strong salary in a cheap state has rarely been worth more relative to expensive coastal markets), and the premium on specialty credentials. The figures on this page are the May 2025 BLS estimates, the most recent national data, and the state pages carry the same detail locally.

Job outlook

Employment of network and computer systems administrators is projected to decline about 4% from 2024 to 2034, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as routine tasks are automated and work shifts toward cloud, DevOps, and Networks-as-a-Service. Even so, roughly 14,300 openings a year are projected, almost all to replace people who move on. The honest read: this is a stable-paying but shrinking role, and the strongest careers come from pivoting toward cloud, security, and DevOps skills rather than traditional on-premises administration.

For context, the average growth rate across all U.S. occupations through 2034 is about 3%. A large share of yearly openings also comes from replacing workers who retire or move on, so real hiring tends to run ahead of the net-growth figure, and shortage and rural areas often pay the most to attract candidates.

How to become a network administrator

Network administration is an experience- and certification-driven IT path:

1. Get a foundation through a bachelor’s in IT or computer science, or equivalent certifications and experience.
2. Earn certifications (CompTIA Network+/Security+, Cisco CCNA, AWS or Azure) that employers screen for.
3. Gain hands-on experience with networks, servers, and increasingly cloud platforms.
4. Pivot toward cloud, security, or DevOps, where demand and pay are growing.

Is it worth it? The return on the degree

Entry can be cheaper than many degrees, through certifications and experience rather than four years of college, so the upfront return against a median near $99,130 is reasonable. But because the role is projected to shrink, the durable return comes from continually adding cloud and security skills and pivoting toward growing specialties. Weigh program cost, your starting state and setting, and the specialties you can reach against the debt. The pay tables above, set next to the education column in the comparison section, are the honest way to run that math before committing.

Two levers change the answer most: the price of the program you choose, since cost varies enormously between public and private schools, and the state and setting you start in, since the same degree pays very differently across the by-state and settings tables above. A graduate who controls program cost and starts in a high-real-value state can clear the debt years faster than one who does neither, on the identical credential.

Frequently asked questions

State guides and tools

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025 and Occupational Outlook Handbook (SOC 15-1244 and related codes); national, state, and metro estimates. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024. Take-home figures are 2026 estimates (federal, FICA, and state) for a single filer and will vary with deductions and filing status. See our methodology.