Business Analyst Salary: What the Data Actually Shows

The range is wide because the occupation holds very different jobs. BLS says management analysts, often called management consultants, recommend ways to improve an organization's efficiency, and that although some work for the organization they analyze, most work as consultants on a contractual basis.^[4] A solo consultant, a staff analyst at a consulting firm, and a program analyst in a government agency share that description and one occupation code. At the 10th percentile a management analyst earns $60,640; at the 90th, $171,640, a gap of $111,000.^[1]

The middle half of the field earns between $77,950 and $133,370. The average, $113,790, sits $11,930 above the median, which tells you the top of the range stretches further than the bottom. For judging one offer, the median is the better reference point. For context, the median for all U.S. occupations is $50,980, so even the 10th percentile of this job lands above the typical American wage.^[2]

The federal wage survey counts straight-time gross pay: base salary, cost-of-living allowances, guaranteed pay, and incentive pay such as commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out overtime, severance, nonproduction bonuses, and the employer's cost of benefits.^[5] That matters here, because BLS says analysts at consulting firms are usually paid a base salary plus a year-end bonus.^[4] Treat the figures on this page as a guide to base pay, and weigh any bonus target separately.

The survey also excludes the self-employed.^[5] That leaves out a meaningful group in this field: BLS estimates 14 percent of management analysts are self-employed, against 5.8 percent across all occupations.^[2] BLS says self-employed analysts are paid directly by their clients, typically by the hour or the project, so independent consultants' earnings are not in these tables at all.^[4]

Five states hold most of the jobs. California (137,280), Florida (71,060), New York (69,150), Virginia (59,620), and Texas (50,990) together account for 43.2 percent of the 898,280 wage-and-salary management analyst jobs in the survey.^[1] California alone has 15.3 percent of them, and its median, $101,460, is within $400 of the national figure.

Massachusetts has the highest median among states with at least 1,000 management analysts, $134,720, on 30,060 jobs. Virginia is the standout among the big markets: 59,620 jobs, the fourth most of any state, at a median of $117,580, $15,720 above the national median. New York pays $112,250 on 69,150 jobs. Florida is the clearest case of a big market that pays less, with 71,060 jobs at $88,610, $13,250 below the national median. At the low end of the table are Mississippi ($69,390), Arkansas ($72,950), and Nebraska ($75,360). BLS does not publish this occupation's pay by state and industry together, so the table cannot say how much of a state's premium comes from its employers; the industry section below shows how much the employer alone moves the median.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes Regional Price Parities, which measure what the same basket of goods and services costs in each state against a national average of 100.^[6] Dividing a state's median by its parity restates the pay in national-average dollars. Among states with at least 1,000 management analysts, these come out on top:

• Massachusetts: $134,720 nominal, about $127,400 after adjusting for prices that run 5.8 percent above the national average.
• Alabama: $108,040 nominal, about $121,600 after adjusting for prices that run 11.2 percent below the national average.
• Virginia: $117,580 nominal, about $116,300 after adjusting for prices that run 1.1 percent above the national average.
• Maryland: $121,680 nominal, about $115,900 after adjusting for prices that run 5.0 percent above the national average.
• District of Columbia: $126,140 nominal, about $114,800 after adjusting for prices that run 9.9 percent above the national average.

The adjustment reshuffles the list. Massachusetts stays first, going from $134,720 to about $127,400. Alabama jumps to second, on only 4,900 jobs: its $108,040 median, with prices 11.2 percent below average, restates to about $121,600. California, the largest market, falls out of the top five: its $101,460 median drops to about $91,600 because its prices run 10.7 percent above average. New York's $112,250 lands at about $104,000, close to the national median of $101,860. Texas moves the other way, from $101,400 to about $104,500, so part of its gap with the coasts is a price difference rather than a pay difference.

The parities are statewide averages, and the large metros where most consulting firms sit usually cost more than the state as a whole. Use the adjusted figures as a first comparison between locations, then check the metro-level parities BEA also publishes before weighing a specific relocation.

The largest employer is the consulting industry itself. Management and technical consulting services employ 223,280 management analysts at a median of $105,460, 24.9 percent of the occupation in the wage survey.^[1] BLS's broader grouping, which counts the self-employed, puts professional, scientific, and technical services at 33 percent of management analyst jobs, government (excluding state and local education and hospitals) at 18 percent, self-employed workers at 14 percent, finance and insurance at 13 percent, and management of companies at 5 percent.^[4]

The federal executive branch pays the most of the large employers, $115,920 on 76,570 jobs, $14,060 above the national median.^[1] Computer systems design firms follow at $111,490. Corporate headquarters and holding companies ($101,030), local government ($101,150), insurance carriers ($99,520), and banks and other credit intermediaries ($98,410) cluster close to the national median. State government is the outlier on the low side: 66,540 jobs at $77,440, $24,420 below the national median.

The $38,480 spread between the highest and lowest of these industries is wider than the gap between most states. Government is not one pay scale: federal analysts, local analysts, and state analysts sit at three different points on this list. For pay, the kind of employer matters as much as the city, and a move from state government to a federal agency changes the benchmark more than a move between most states does.

BLS projects employment of management analysts to grow 10.1 percent from 2025 to 2035, from 1,077,100 to 1,186,300 jobs, with about 94,100 openings a year once replacements for people who retire or change careers are counted.^[2] It attributes the growth to demand for consulting services as organizations look for ways to improve efficiency and control costs, expects growth to be particularly strong in smaller consulting companies that specialize in an industry or function such as information technology or human resources, and expects government agencies to hire analysts as they look for ways to reduce spending.^[4]

The projection is a statement about consulting demand, and BLS locates the strongest growth in firms that specialize, which points toward analysts with a specialty. Two job counts appear on this page and measure different things. The wage survey counts 898,280 wage-and-salary jobs in May 2025; the projections count 1,077,100 jobs in 2025, from a broader set of surveys that includes the self-employed.^[2] Use the first with the pay figures and the second with the growth figures.

Five occupations sit closest to this one. Computer systems analysts earn a median of $105,850, $3,990 more than management analysts, on 519,530 jobs; general and operations managers earn $105,770; project management specialists $102,320, almost level with management analysts, on 1,066,670 jobs.^[1] BLS lists less than five years of related experience as typical for management analysts, no experience for computer systems analysts and project management specialists, and five years or more for general and operations managers.^[2]

Operations research analysts earn $88,940 on 108,510 jobs, $12,920 less than management analysts, yet BLS projects 11.9 percent growth for them against 10.1 percent for management analysts.^[1][2] Market research analysts and marketing specialists earn $78,760, the lowest on the list, with 7 percent projected growth.^[1][2] The pattern is that the business-side analyst jobs pay between $78,760 and about $105,850 and differ mostly in what they ask you to do. Our business analyst career guide compares the duties, and the data scientist guide covers the neighboring career on the data side.

Check an offer against three figures at once. Start with the state median, not the national one: $101,860 nationally, but $117,580 in Virginia and $88,610 in Florida. Then find the employer's industry in the list above, since the industry spread is wider than most state gaps. Finally, place the offer on the percentile ladder: $77,950 is the 25th percentile and $133,370 the 75th.^[1]

Two adjustments make the comparison fair. Compare base pay with base pay, because the survey leaves out nonproduction bonuses and benefits, and consulting firms usually add a year-end bonus.^[5][4] And ask what the title means at that employer: O*NET lists business analyst, business consultant, management consultant, program management analyst, and performance management analyst as reported titles for this occupation, so the work behind a title is what to compare.^[7]

Not in any federal figure. BLS says management analysts are not required to get certification, but that a credential may give jobseekers a competitive advantage, and it publishes no pay by certification.^[4] The credential specific to this work is the Certified Management Consultant designation from the Institute of Management Consultants USA. It is built for people already consulting: the basic stream asks for at least 3 years of management consulting experience and five satisfactory client evaluations.^[3] That makes it a mid-career signal for consultants who sell to clients, not an entry-level boost. For salary negotiation, a stronger lever is the employer type and specialty covered above.

The largest lever in the federal data is the employer, covered in the industry section above. The second is scope: BLS says analysts often specialize in an area such as inventory control or corporate restructuring, or in an industry such as healthcare or telecommunications, and that senior analysts supervise teams on complex projects and may become involved in seeking out new business.^[4] The top of the range goes to people who own a client relationship or a budget, not to those who produce the analysis for someone else.

On credentials, BLS says some employers prefer to hire candidates with an MBA.^[4] BLS does not publish this occupation's pay by degree, so no federal figure shows what an MBA or a master's in business analytics adds; weigh one on cost and on the roles it opens. BLS also does not publish pay by years of experience, so the percentile ladder is the best federal guide to how far the job can go. Specialization and a move into a higher-paying employer type are the two changes the data supports.