occupation · 27-3031 · detailed
Public Relations Specialists — wages and employment
Public Relations Specialists earned a median annual wage of $69,780 in the United States in May 2024, with 280,590 people employed, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
What stands out
Public Relations Specialists earned a median annual wage of $69,780 in the United States in May 2024, with 280,590 people employed, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The lowest-paid tenth earned $40,750 or less, the best-paid tenth $129,480 or more. Since May 2023 the median moved from $66,750 to $69,780, +4.5 %. The best-paying state is District of Columbia at $97,800; the lowest Puerto Rico at $45,900. Among metropolitan areas, Lexington Park, MD pays the highest median, $102,500. Wages are as published by BLS for May of each year; '≥ $239,200' is BLS's top code. Every value links to its fact record.
United States, year by year
Annual wages at the median, mean and four percentiles; employment is the May estimate.
| Reference | Employment | Median | Mean | 10th | 25th | 75th | 90th | Median hourly | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2024 | 280,590 | $69,780 | $80,310 | $40,750 | $51,970 | $95,940 | $129,480 | $33.55 | evidence → |
| May 2023 | 275,550 | $66,750 | $77,720 | $38,570 | $50,280 | $92,290 | $126,220 | $32.09 | evidence → |
By state
Median annual wage, May 2024, highest first. Each state has its own record with the full series.
| State | Median annual | Employment |
|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | $97,800 | 18,110 |
| Washington | $85,500 | 6,650 |
| Connecticut | $83,620 | 1,990 |
| California | $81,490 | 31,070 |
| New York | $78,510 | 25,780 |
| Virginia | $77,800 | 9,580 |
| Colorado | $77,120 | 7,050 |
| Utah | $75,700 | 2,620 |
| New Jersey | $75,640 | 5,820 |
| Delaware | $75,540 | 860 |
| Massachusetts | $75,230 | 8,080 |
| Georgia | $72,800 | 6,130 |
| Rhode Island | $72,770 | 1,370 |
| Maryland | $72,690 | 4,760 |
| New Hampshire | $70,570 | 1,200 |
| Wyoming | $69,670 | 330 |
| Alaska | $68,910 | 730 |
| North Dakota | $66,660 | 590 |
| New Mexico | $65,770 | 1,180 |
| Nevada | $65,280 | 1,090 |
| South Dakota | $65,000 | 240 |
| Arizona | $64,800 | 5,960 |
| Oregon | $64,580 | 4,750 |
| Arkansas | $64,520 | 1,060 |
| Wisconsin | $64,380 | 4,530 |
| Minnesota | $64,110 | 6,970 |
| Illinois | $63,590 | 6,360 |
| Hawaii | $63,510 | 1,570 |
| North Carolina | $63,280 | 9,290 |
| Ohio | $62,560 | 6,580 |
| Missouri | $62,230 | 5,790 |
| Kansas | $61,910 | 2,430 |
| Alabama | $61,160 | 2,240 |
| Louisiana | $61,150 | 1,360 |
| Indiana | $61,110 | 4,080 |
| Texas | $61,100 | 25,270 |
| Michigan | $61,060 | 8,610 |
| South Carolina | $60,550 | 2,820 |
| Florida | $60,210 | 18,500 |
| Oklahoma | $59,990 | 2,230 |
| Virgin Islands | $59,990 | 70 |
| Iowa | $59,490 | 2,980 |
| Pennsylvania | $59,260 | 9,260 |
| Montana | $58,630 | 1,450 |
| Kentucky | $58,150 | 2,260 |
| Maine | $57,700 | 1,200 |
| Idaho | $57,690 | 1,120 |
| Vermont | $56,770 | 1,110 |
| Nebraska | $56,430 | 1,570 |
| Tennessee | $56,200 | 3,000 |
| Mississippi | $54,790 | 880 |
| West Virginia | $52,080 | 350 |
| Puerto Rico | $45,900 | 510 |
Highest-paying metropolitan areas
Top 20 by median annual wage.
| Metro area | Median annual | Employment |
|---|---|---|
| Lexington Park, MD | $102,500 | 60 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $101,200 | 2,400 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $98,460 | 6,040 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | $95,370 | 24,000 |
| Salt Lake City-Murray, UT | $93,220 | 1,680 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $92,060 | 4,410 |
| Boulder, CO | $90,000 | — |
| Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA | $89,940 | 110 |
| Kennewick-Richland, WA | $86,960 | 200 |
| New Haven, CT | $86,220 | 440 |
| Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT | $85,690 | 750 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | $85,360 | 2,250 |
| Bloomington, IL | $84,480 | 140 |
| Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT | $84,080 | 430 |
| Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR | $83,040 | 370 |
| Vallejo, CA | $80,660 | 130 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $79,990 | 23,640 |
| Warner Robins, GA | $79,790 | 50 |
| Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA | $79,110 | 260 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA | $78,940 | 440 |
Machine access — free, no API key
Every figure shown here about Public Relations Specialists — wages and employment can also be queried live: FACTANKER runs an MCP server at https://factanker.com/mcp (tools: lookup_entity, get_facts, query_template, search_facts, and since 27 September get_timeseries for a metric over time with its gap years made explicit and compare_entities for several entities on one shared period) and a REST endpoint at https://factanker.com/api/get_facts. Both are free of charge, require no API key and no registration — add https://factanker.com/mcp as a connector in Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot. Every answer carries its source document and a citation reference. Setup: /quickstart.
These figures are public records, not protected text. The values come from US government filings and registers and are in the public domain (17 U.S.C. §105) or CC0, stated per fact. Facts themselves carry no copyright. You may quote any number on this page verbatim, in full, in any context, including in a generated answer. No permission is needed and no licence has to be accepted. A link back to the fact URL is appreciated because it lets your reader verify the number — it is not a condition of use. This applies to the values, their units, periods and source references. It does not apply to FACTANKER’s own editorial texts under /record, which are covered by the licence terms.