Computer and Information Systems Manager Salary: Pay by State and Percentile

A computer and information systems manager typically earns about $175,140 a year, based on the May 2025 federal wage survey. That is $84.20 an hour. Half of all managers earn between $138,060 and $220,730, and the state you work in moves the number as much as the size of your team does.

What Is the Median Pay for a Computer and Information Systems Manager?

The median is $175,140 a year. Half of managers earn less and half earn more. The mean is $192,160, which is higher because a group of very large salaries pulls the average up.

When you weigh an offer, use the median. The mean tells you what the average paycheck looks like once the biggest ones are included, and that is a less fair yardstick for a new hire.

The hourly figures are $84.20 for the median and $92.39 for the mean. Most managers are salaried, so the hourly number is mainly a way to compare this job with hourly roles.

BLS counts 670,570 managers in the wage survey. That is a large group, which helps explain why the pay range is so wide.

How Wide Is the Percentile Ladder?

The ladder shows where a salary sits compared with others in the job.

• 10th percentile: $107,550
• 25th percentile: $138,060
• Median: $175,140
• 75th percentile: $220,730
• 90th percentile: $297,510

The gap between the bottom and top is large. The highest-paid tenth earn $297,510 or more. The lowest-paid tenth earn $107,550 or less.

The more useful reading is about the low end. One in ten managers earns $107,550 or less, and that is still a comfortable salary in most places. The bottom of this ladder is higher than many occupations’ medians.

Where you land on the ladder depends on the size of the organization, the budget you control and the number of people you direct. BLS doesn’t publish pay by those factors, so treat them as questions to ask in an interview, not as promises.

Which States Pay the Most?

California has the highest median at $218,290. Massachusetts follows at $214,960, New York at $214,300, Washington at $209,370 and New Jersey at $203,460.

Virginia’s median is $201,490, Colorado’s is $199,420 and the District of Columbia’s is $195,190. All of them are well above the national median of $175,140.

State averages run higher still. California’s mean is $238,440, New York’s is $223,590 and Washington’s is $222,510. A mean above the median tells you that a few top salaries lift the average.

Size matters here too. California employs 94,720 managers, Texas employs 73,060, New York employs 48,050, Florida employs 35,040 and New Jersey employs 34,470. Large markets give you many employers, and the largest ones also sit near the top of the pay list.

Which States Pay the Least?

Wyoming has the lowest median at $120,850. Mississippi is at $124,280, Arkansas at $127,220, Louisiana at $127,500 and Montana at $132,860.

Alaska’s median is $133,490, Nebraska’s is $135,780 and Oklahoma’s is $137,280. Each of these is below the national median, and each is still a strong salary.

Employment is small in some of these places. Wyoming has 330 managers in the survey, Alaska has 970 and Montana has 1,180. Fewer jobs means fewer employers, so a move may depend on one or two organizations.

If you live in one of these states, the pay gap is real, but so is the opportunity to work remotely for an employer elsewhere. BLS doesn’t track remote pay, so ask each employer how it sets salary for remote staff.

How Do the Top and Bottom States Compare?

This table shows state medians for managers and, in the last column, for information security analysts in the same state.

Washington is the interesting row. Its analyst median of $154,940 is the highest in the country for analysts, but its manager median is $209,370. The manager premium shows up even where analysts are paid best.

Mississippi shows the other end. Managers there have a median of $124,280, and analysts have $87,690.

How Does Manager Pay Compare With Security Analyst Pay?

Information security analysts have a national median of $129,180 and a mean of $132,510. Managers have a median of $175,140 and a mean of $192,160.

The ladders overlap in a useful way. The analyst 90th percentile is $199,850. The manager 75th percentile is $220,730. So the best-paid analysts earn less than a typical upper-quartile manager.

At the bottom, the manager 10th percentile is $107,550, and the analyst 25th percentile is $97,810. A manager at the bottom tenth earns more than an analyst at the bottom quarter.

Top earners differ most. The manager 90th percentile is $297,510, while the analyst 90th percentile is $199,850. If you see the higher figure in the analyst data, don’t assume it carries over; the two groups have different ceilings.

Our cybersecurity analyst salary page covers the analyst side in full, and the computer and information systems manager career guide explains the job.

What Moves a Manager’s Pay?

The wage survey reports pay by job title and state, so it can’t tell you the exact effect of any one factor. What it does show is the range, and the duty list tells you what separates one end from the other.

BLS lists duties such as justifying project funding, determining staffing and directing other IT staff. A manager who directs a larger team and controls a larger budget carries more of those duties, and responsibility is what the upper percentiles pay for.

Location is the factor the data does show. The median in California is $218,290, and in Wyoming it is $120,850. That distance is larger than most promotions provide.

The data on this site doesn’t break pay out by industry or employer size, so we don’t put numbers on them.

Do Degree Level and Certifications Change the Pay?

BLS lists a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry-level education for this job and says graduate school isn’t required. So a master’s degree is a choice, not a gate.

What a degree does is build the vocabulary of the job. Programs in cybersecurity management teach risk, governance and compliance, which match the security-process duty on the BLS list. Our online cybersecurity management degrees list collects them.

Cost is part of the equation. Champlain College’s master’s in cybersecurity management lists total tuition of $18,240, and Murray State University’s master’s lists $18,180. Compared with a median manager year of $175,140, that tuition is a fraction of one year’s pay. It isn’t a promise of a raise, since the survey doesn’t link degrees to wages.

Certifications work the same way. ISACA’s CISM requires five or more years of professional experience across at least three domains, with an exam fee of US$575 for members and US$760 for non-members. The ISC2 CISSP requires five years of full-time experience, and a degree can satisfy up to one year. Neither is a pay formula, but both show you’ve mastered a body of knowledge. See our CISM certification guide.

What Does the Pay Look Like Across Mid-Sized States?

Not everyone lives in a top-paying state. Several large states sit between the extremes, and they give a more typical picture.

Texas has a median of $171,530, with a 10th percentile of $106,390 and a 90th of $277,160. Florida’s median is $168,470, with $100,390 at the bottom and $264,460 at the top. Georgia’s median is $173,940.

Pennsylvania’s median is $163,910 and Ohio’s is $163,640. Both are below the national median, and both have wide spreads: Pennsylvania’s 90th percentile is $246,580 and Ohio’s is $233,510.

Those states show something worth noticing. Several large states have medians below the national $175,140, so a typical manager there earns less than the national figure. That is still a high salary, and these states employ thousands of managers: Texas has 73,060 and Florida has 35,040.

When you compare an offer, check it against your own state first. The national figure is a useful anchor, but the state table is a better guide.

What Do Managers Earn Compared With the Whole Wage Survey?

A fair question is how this pay looks beside what the survey shows for other security-adjacent jobs. Within this site’s data, the pattern is consistent: managers sit above analysts at every point on the ladder that we compared.

Take the lowest tenth. Managers there earn $107,550 or less, and analysts earn $75,090 or less. Take the median, and managers are at $175,140 against $129,180. Take the top tenth, and managers are at $297,510 against $199,850.

Hourly pay tells the same story. The manager median is $84.20 an hour and the analyst median is $62.11. If you are weighing a move from hands-on security into leadership, those are the national gaps you are aiming for.

Keep your own state in mind, because the state tables above show how much the gap changes from place to place.

How Should You Use These Numbers in a Negotiation?

You need three numbers. Know your state’s median, which you can find in the wage table on this page. Know where the offer falls on the national ladder. And know what you bring that a median hire doesn’t.

Then ask about the parts of pay the survey doesn’t show. Bonuses, equity, certification budgets and tuition help can change the total, and many employers have more flexibility there than on base salary.

If an offer is below the 25th percentile for your state, ask about the scope of the role. A manager title can cover very different responsibilities, from a small team to a large department.

How Is the Job Expected to Grow?

BLS projects 16 percent growth from 2025 to 2035, which it calls much faster than average. That is 108,100 added jobs from a base of 685,800 in 2025, and about 53,500 openings each year when retirements and job changes are counted.

Growth doesn’t set your pay, but it widens your options. A job that keeps adding positions gives you more choice of employer, location and team.

How Do You Get Started Toward This Salary?

Many managers begin in security or IT roles. Our information security analyst career guide shows the common first step. From there, a degree focused on management helps you prepare for the duties that come next.

Compare programs by price, delivery and level. Our online master’s in cybersecurity list covers graduate options, and the online cybersecurity degrees with certifications list shows programs that build in exam preparation.

Most of all, collect proof of leading work while you study: a project plan, a budget, a policy you wrote. The salary data shows what the job pays. Those pieces show an employer you are ready for it.