Industrial Production Manager Salary in 2026: National, by State, City, Specialty & Real Value

An industrial production manager in the United States earns a median of $126,060 a year, about $60.61 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Pay runs from roughly $78,000 at the 10th percentile to $205,520 at the 90th, and it swings further once you account for state, metro, setting, specialty, cost of living, and tax. About 246,250 industrial production managers 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 industrial production managers is $126,060 a year ($60.61 an hour), with a mean of $134,170. The full wage curve, from entry to senior:

Percentile	Annual	Hourly
10th (entry)	$78,000	$37.50
25th	$98,160	$47.19
50th (median)	$126,060	$60.61
75th	$161,880	$77.83
90th (senior)	$205,520	$98.81

The gap from the 10th to the 90th percentile is about $127,520. 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 $134,170 sits above the median, which tells you the top of the field pulls the average up: a meaningful share of industrial production managers 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	$78,000 to $98,160
Mid-career	~50th	around $126,060
Experienced	~75th	around $161,880
Senior / specialized / lead	90th+	$205,520 and up

The climb from new graduate to senior is roughly $127,520. 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 production manager 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 industrial production manager 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	Wyoming	$151,490	92.7	$163,436	390
2	Delaware	$153,000	99.8	$153,294	370
3	Louisiana	$133,210	88.2	$151,020	2,680
4	New Hampshire	$146,590	104.2	$140,729	1,540
5	Massachusetts	$148,050	105.8	$139,991	4,470
6	Kansas	$125,750	90.1	$139,617	2,420
7	Alabama	$122,520	88.8	$137,937	3,620
8	Oklahoma	$120,570	87.8	$137,256	2,140
9	Colorado	$141,020	103.1	$136,844	1,730
10	Mississippi	$118,660	87.0	$136,465	2,290
11	Arkansas	$118,120	86.9	$135,869	2,560
12	Washington	$145,210	107.0	$135,694	4,760
13	New Jersey	$147,260	108.8	$135,343	6,780
14	South Carolina	$126,880	93.7	$135,340	6,390
15	New Mexico	$124,670	92.2	$135,199	670
16	Texas	$130,890	97.1	$134,859	21,200
17	North Carolina	$125,940	94.3	$133,516	9,640
18	Georgia	$127,820	96.3	$132,741	5,510
19	North Dakota	$116,050	89.0	$130,453	490
20	Indiana	$121,500	93.3	$130,185	9,400
21	Connecticut	$134,780	103.6	$130,084	3,360
22	Tennessee	$119,430	91.9	$129,999	6,310
23	Missouri	$117,660	90.8	$129,557	4,110
24	Maine	$124,810	97.0	$128,604	800
25	Montana	$120,690	94.6	$127,519	270
26	Illinois	$127,270	100.0	$127,323	11,570
27	Virginia	$128,230	101.1	$126,830	2,570
28	Maryland	$132,540	105.0	$126,278	2,480
29	Michigan	$120,660	96.2	$125,404	14,320
30	Minnesota	$123,580	98.6	$125,308	5,080
31	West Virginia	$111,760	89.5	$124,876	1,000
32	Kentucky	$112,250	90.2	$124,502	6,430
33	Arizona	$124,810	100.7	$123,971	3,630
34	Iowa	$106,510	87.8	$121,362	3,620
35	Rhode Island	$124,120	102.3	$121,353	940
36	South Dakota	$107,490	88.6	$121,340	720
37	New York	$130,470	107.9	$120,894	6,630
38	California	$132,620	110.7	$119,780	25,130
39	Nebraska	$107,200	90.1	$118,975	2,160
40	Ohio	$109,340	92.8	$117,856	14,290
41	Utah	$115,290	98.9	$116,615	2,590
42	Vermont	$114,150	98.0	$116,530	480
43	Florida	$119,870	103.4	$115,913	9,480
44	Oregon	$119,420	103.4	$115,537	3,150
45	Hawaii	$124,650	110.0	$113,369	130
46	District of Columbia	$124,420	109.9	$113,211	50
47	Idaho	$107,340	95.5	$112,405	1,210
48	Nevada	$112,270	100.0	$112,294	1,620
49	Pennsylvania	$109,140	97.6	$111,856	10,200
50	Alaska	$113,280	102.4	$110,669	410

On real, cost-adjusted value, Wyoming leads at $163,436, while Alaska trails at $110,669. By raw sticker pay the order is different: Delaware ($153,000), Wyoming ($151,490), and Massachusetts ($148,050) 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 #10 by sticker pay ($132,620) but only #38 once its cost level of 111 is applied, because high prices eat the higher salary. Meanwhile Mississippi looks middling on sticker (#35) yet climbs to #10 on real value, since a 118,660-dollar median goes much further at a cost level of 87. 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 production manager job markets by employment, with median pay:

Metro	Median	Employed
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$128,540	9,120
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL	$129,840	8,850
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY	$151,630	7,220
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX	$133,870	6,060
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI	$126,200	5,950
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	$132,990	5,890
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA	$126,160	3,910
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN	$127,640	3,580
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA	$153,210	3,500
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$151,580	3,400

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 industrial production managers work changes pay as much as geography. National medians by employer type:

Setting	Employed (U.S.)	Median
Machinery Manufacturing (3331, 3332, 3334, and 3339 only)	11,250	$124,790
Plastics Product Manufacturing	9,620	$117,930
Aerospace Product and Parts Manufacturing	9,520	$140,800
Chemical Manufacturing (3251, 3252, 3253, and 3259 only)	9,340	$139,500
Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing	8,080	$138,990
Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing (3321, 3322, 3325, 3326, and 3329 only)	7,960	$119,690
Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturing	7,960	$124,910

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 an industrial production manager beside the roles people weigh against it, with pay set next to the education each requires:

Role	National median	Education
Production Supervisor	$74,450	Experience
Industrial Production Manager (this role)	$126,060	Bachelor’s + experience
Chief Executive	$213,990	Bachelor’s + experience

Against production supervisor at $74,450, this role pays about $51,610 more for the added schooling. The higher-paid chief executive ($213,990) sits $87,930 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.

Experience, industry, and what they mean for pay

There is no license; experience, industry, and plant scale gate pay. A bachelor’s (often in business, engineering, or industrial technology) plus years of production experience is typical, and credentials like Lean, Six Sigma, or APICS help. The biggest pay differences come from the industry, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, energy, and high-tech manufacturing pay above lower-margin sectors, and from the size and complexity of the plant managed.

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

Pay rises with industry and scale: high-value manufacturing (pharmaceuticals, aerospace, semiconductors, energy) pays above commodity production, and managing larger, more complex, or multi-shift plants lifts pay. Lean and Six Sigma expertise, and the move from production manager to plant manager, operations director, and VP of manufacturing, raise the ceiling well above the median.

The practical takeaway: within industrial production managers, 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 $126,060 median is base pay, and real total compensation often runs higher. These are salaried management roles where variable pay is significant: production, safety, and output-based bonuses are common, and at larger and public manufacturers equity or stock can be part of senior packages, so total compensation runs above base, especially at plant-manager and director levels. 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 industrial production managers on the same $126,060 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)	$126,060	$96,915	23.1%
New York	$126,060	$90,400	28.3%
California	$126,060	$89,164	29.3%

That is roughly $7,751 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 production manager earning $98,160 nets about $77,442, while a senior one at $205,520 keeps about $153,000, 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 industrial production managers 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 industrial production managers is projected to grow about 2% from 2024 to 2034, slower than the average for all occupations, with roughly 17,100 openings a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most openings come from replacing retirements rather than new growth, and automation tempers demand, but reshoring and continued manufacturing keep these managers needed, while some declining-output industries will need fewer.

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 an industrial production manager

Industrial production management is a senior, experience-built manufacturing role:

1. Earn a bachelor’s in business, engineering, or industrial technology.
2. Gain production experience, often starting in a supervisory or engineering role on the floor.
3. Add Lean, Six Sigma, or APICS credentials that employers value.
4. Advance from production manager to plant manager, operations director, and VP of manufacturing.

Is it worth it? The return on the degree

The return is strong: a bachelor’s plus production experience leads to a median near $126,060, well above many management roles, with a higher ceiling in pharma, aerospace, and other high-value manufacturing and in plant and operations leadership. Lean and Six Sigma credentials add value more cheaply than another degree. 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 11-3051 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.