Operations Manager Salary in 2026: What You'll Actually Earn

The title covers very different jobs, and the pay shows it. At the 10th percentile a general or operations manager earns $50,090; at the 90th, $253,390, a gap of $203,300.^[1] BLS describes the work as too diverse to sort into one area of management: formulating policies, directing daily operations, planning the use of materials and people, making staff schedules, assigning work, and making sure projects get finished.^[3] The person running a restaurant and the person running a plant share that description and that occupation code. The industry section below finds a $100,940 spread in medians across the largest employers.

The middle half of the field earns between $72,320 and $167,280. The average, $134,940, sits $29,170 above the median, so a minority of very high earners pull it up; for judging one offer, the median is the better reference. The bottom of the range is worth noticing: the 10th percentile, $50,090, is $890 below the $50,980 median for all U.S. occupations.^[2] Unlike most management jobs, the lowest-paid tenth of this one earns about what a typical American worker does. The industry table below points to a reason: the largest employer, restaurants, has the lowest median.

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.^[4] BLS notes that total compensation for corporate executives often includes stock options and other performance bonuses, with nonprofit and government executives usually receiving fewer of those benefits.^[3] That note is about executives as a group, and BLS does not say how common bonuses are for general and operations managers, so treat the figures here as a guide to base pay and weigh any bonus or equity separately.

The survey also excludes the self-employed.^[4] That leaves out few operations managers: BLS estimates 0.8 percent of them are self-employed, against 5.8 percent across all occupations.^[2] Chief executives are a different case, with 26.6 percent self-employed, which is one reason this page treats them as a separate occupation.

Five states hold most of the jobs. Texas (431,310), California (300,840), Florida (236,290), New York (206,740), and Pennsylvania (172,010) together account for 38.5 percent of the 3,503,020 operations manager jobs in the wage survey.^[1] Texas alone has 12.3 percent of the national total, more than any other state, and yet its median, $103,230, is $2,540 below the national figure. Florida and Pennsylvania follow the same pattern at $101,580 and $103,130. California and New York pay more than the nation, $124,390 and $130,860, on 8.6 percent and 5.9 percent of the jobs.

The highest medians sit in a different set of places. Among states with at least 1,000 operations managers, New Jersey leads at $173,690 on 53,000 jobs, $67,920 above the national median.^[1] The next four, District of Columbia ($168,000, 36,150 jobs), South Dakota ($137,400, 4,280 jobs), Connecticut ($137,220, 39,070 jobs), and Delaware ($137,220, 5,000 jobs), include two very small markets, so a median there reflects a handful of employers more than a hiring pool. The low end has a large market in it: Missouri has 109,020 jobs at a median of $79,300, and Arkansas has the lowest median in the table at $74,050, $31,720 under the national figure. BLS does not publish this occupation's pay by state and industry together, so the table cannot separate how much of a state's level comes from its employers and how much from its prices; the next section removes the price effect.

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.^[5] Dividing a state's median by its parity restates the pay in national-average dollars. Among states with at least 1,000 operations managers, these come out on top:

• New Jersey: $173,690 nominal, about $159,600 after adjusting for prices that run 8.8 percent above the national average.
• South Dakota: $137,400 nominal, about $155,100 after adjusting for prices that run 11.4 percent below the national average.
• District of Columbia: $168,000 nominal, about $152,900 after adjusting for prices that run 9.9 percent above the national average.
• Delaware: $137,220 nominal, about $137,500 after adjusting for prices that run 0.2 percent below the national average.
• Connecticut: $137,220 nominal, about $132,400 after adjusting for prices that run 3.6 percent above the national average.

New Jersey stays first, going from $173,690 to about $159,600. California and New York, which both pay above the nation, fall out of the top five: California's $124,390 median drops to about $112,300 because its prices run 10.7 percent above average, and New York's lands at about $121,300. Both are still above the national median of $105,770, so the coasts keep a real premium, only a smaller one. States with lower prices move up instead: South Dakota and Delaware join the top five once prices are counted.

Texas is the reverse case. Its $103,230 median sits below the national figure, but prices there run 2.9 percent below average, which lifts it to about $106,400, above the national median. The largest market for operations managers pays about what the rest of the country does once local prices are counted. The parities are statewide averages, and the metros where most jobs sit usually cost more than the state as a whole, so use the adjusted figures as a first comparison and check BEA's metro-level parities before weighing a specific move.

The largest single employer is not a corporate headquarters. It is restaurants: restaurants and other eating places employ 164,670 operations managers, 4.7 percent of the occupation in the wage survey, at a median of $64,320, the lowest on the list.^[1] Building and dwelling services are next lowest at $82,580. O*NET's reported titles include store manager and center manager, the site-level versions of the job.^[6]

Management of companies and enterprises, the corporate headquarters, pays the most: $165,260 on 124,740 jobs.^[1] Computer systems design firms pay $157,700 and management and technical consulting $151,280, $45,510 above the national median, on 140,980 jobs. Local government pays $130,630, while building equipment contractors ($111,450) and durable goods wholesalers ($107,990) land close to the national figure. BLS groups the industries more broadly in its handbook: retail trade and professional, scientific, and technical services each employ 12 percent of general and operations managers, while construction, wholesale trade, and manufacturing employ 7 percent each.^[3] The handbook's medians for those groups run from $75,860 in retail trade to $151,040 in professional, scientific, and technical services, with manufacturing at $130,960, wholesale trade at $115,620, and construction at $112,230.^[3] BLS says earnings differ across industries because the responsibilities do.^[3]

The $100,940 spread between the highest and lowest of these industries is wider than the $99,640 spread between the highest- and lowest-paying states. For this job, the kind of employer matters more than the place: a move from a restaurant to a corporate headquarters changes the benchmark by more than a move from Arkansas to New Jersey would.

BLS expects demand for general and operations managers to grow as organizations increasingly rely on them to function smoothly.^[3] Employment is projected to rise from 3,599,000 to 3,780,300 between 2025 and 2035, 5 percent against 3.5 percent for all occupations, with about 285,000 openings a year once replacements for people who retire or change occupations are counted.^[2] BLS says many openings in the broader top executives group come from replacing people who transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force, such as to retire.^[3] In a job this large, turnover creates more openings than growth does: the projected gain is 181,300 jobs over ten years, and the annual openings figure is 285,000.

Two job counts appear on this page and measure different things. The wage survey counts 3,503,020 wage-and-salary jobs in May 2025; the projections count 3,599,000 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.

Chief executives are the obvious step above: 204,350 jobs at a median of $213,990, $108,220 more than operations managers.^[1] BLS lists five years or more of related experience as typical for both occupations, and notes that in some organizations the tasks of chief executives overlap with those of general and operations managers.^[2][3] In large organizations, BLS says, chief executives focus on policy and strategy while general and operations managers direct day-to-day operations.^[3] The $75,700 10th percentile for chief executives shows the overlap in practice: the bottom of the chief executive range sits below the operations manager median.^[1]

Industrial production managers, who run manufacturing plants, earn a median of $126,060, $20,290 above operations managers, and construction managers earn $114,990.^[1] Their growth outlooks differ: BLS projects 2.6 percent for industrial production managers, 5 percent for operations managers and 9.1 percent for construction managers.^[2] Management analysts, who advise organizations on how to run better, earn $3,910 less at the median but face the strongest projected growth of the group, 10.1 percent, and BLS lists less than five years of related experience as typical for entry.^[1][2] Transportation, storage, and distribution managers earn $107,230, which our supply chain manager salary guide covers in detail, and BLS lists a high school diploma as their typical entry education.^[1][2]

A title tells you little in this occupation. O*NET's list of reported titles runs from store manager, department manager and center manager to plant superintendent, district manager, general manager and operations director.^[6] Compare the work, not the label. O*NET's overview of the occupation describes overseeing multiple departments or locations and formulating policies, and its core tasks include directing or coordinating budget activities and preparing staff work schedules.^[6] Ask how many people report to the job, how many sites it covers, and whether it owns a budget or a profit and loss figure.

Then check the offer against three figures at once. Start with the employer's industry in the table above, since that spread is wider than any state gap. Next, use the state median, not the national one: $105,770 nationally, but $103,230 in Texas and $173,690 in New Jersey. Finally, place the base salary on the percentile ladder: $72,320 is the 25th percentile and $167,280 the 75th.^[1] Compare base with base, because the survey leaves out nonproduction bonuses and benefits.^[4]

BLS does not publish pay by years of experience for this occupation, so no federal figure says what a fifth year adds to a first. What the data does show is the entry requirement: a bachelor's degree as typical education and 5 years or more of related experience as typical work experience.^[2] BLS adds that most general and operations managers hired from outside an organization need lower-level supervisory or management experience in a related field, and that people promoted from within may be able to substitute experience for education.^[3]

The percentile ladder is the best federal guide to how far the job goes: $72,320 at the 25th percentile, $167,280 at the 75th and $253,390 at the 90th.^[1] The survey does not follow individuals, so treat the ladder as a map of the market and not as a schedule of raises. The largest difference the data does show is between industries, covered above.

The largest lever in the federal data is the employer, covered in the industry section above. The second is scope. O*NET describes the occupation as overseeing multiple departments or locations, and its core tasks include reviewing financial statements and performance data to find cost reductions, directing financial and budget activities, and directing the production, pricing, sales or distribution of products.^[6] A manager who owns a budget across several sites sits in a different part of the pay range from one who runs a shift, and the survey's $147,620 gap between the median and the 90th percentile is where that difference ends up.^[1]

On credentials, BLS lists no license or certification for general and operations managers, though it notes some top executive positions may require one relevant to their area of management.^[3] It also says top executives of large corporations may hold a master's degree in business administration.^[3] BLS does not publish this occupation's pay by degree, so no federal figure shows what an MBA or a bachelor's in business administration adds; weigh a degree on its cost and on the roles it opens. Our guide to whether an MBA is worth it works through that math, and the operations manager career guide covers the path in.