Project Manager salary
What a project manager actually earns, from 1,772 live job postings blended with the official US OEWS (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics) wage anchor. Pick a market for its median and range, then read the seniority split, the trend, and the country comparison below. Updated 2026-07-23.
Switch the market above to see project manager pay in the 5 countries our sources cover, each with its own cost of living. The trend, seniority, and state detail below are United States data, where the official record runs deepest.
What the number means
Project management pays broadly because the title is broad: the same two words cover a coordinator chasing a checklist and a program lead owning a business line. The middle half of US postings runs from about 88,000 to 144,000 dollars, with a blended median near 115,000 and an official OEWS median of 100,750 across a million-person occupation. What the pay reflects is ubiquity, not a hot market: every industry needs delivery, so the demand is deep and steady rather than spiking, which is why the trend since 2021 is a modest 7 percent while newer tech roles ran double that. The lever that actually moves a project manager’s number is scope, not certification, though a PMP (the Project Management Professional certification) is the signal that unlocks the interview. If your pay has stalled, the question is whether you are managing tasks or owning outcomes; the band above pays for the second.
Open project manager roles
Live openings tagged to this occupation, from company career pages and remote boards. Apply at the source.
- Extended Workforce Program ManagerOpenAI · San Francisco$216k–$240kFeaturedRemoteJul 23
- Market Research Project ManagerHaldren Group · United StatesRemoteJul 23
- People & Culture Automation & AI Project ManagerCelonis · Madrid, SpainJul 23
- Assistant to the Director & Project Coordinator (all genders)IDAGIO GmbH · BerlinRemoteJul 22
- Workplace Operations Program ManagerAirbnb · San Francisco, United States$156kJul 22
- Operations Program ManagerStripe · US-RemoteRemoteJul 22
By seniority
Posted-median pay by seniority signal in the title, from our corpus. Noisy at the edges where sample sizes are small.
By country
- United States$90,720 – $147,934 · median $116,325
- Canada$66,761 – $100,364 · median $78,633
- United Kingdom$63,856 – $87,392 · median $75,029
- Ireland$60,495 – $96,191 · median $67,217
- Australia$102,264 – $146,464 · median $118,567
Top-paying US states
OEWS median by state, highest first.
- Californiamedian $157,676
- New Yorkmedian $147,516
- Washingtonmedian $134,888
- Virginiamedian $114,990
- Delawaremedian $114,310
- New Jerseymedian $113,320
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Move into or out of project manager
- business analyst → project managermeasured route
Related salaries
- Product Manager salary$156,877 median
- Marketing Manager salary$123,424 median
- Financial Analyst salary$80,442 median
Quick answers
How much do project managers make?
The live-posting US median is about 115,000 dollars, with a typical range of 88,000 to 144,000. The official BLS OEWS median for project management specialists is 100,750, across a roughly one-million-person occupation.
Does a PMP increase project manager salary?
It helps mainly by getting you interviews and into higher-scope roles; pay scales with the size of what you own more than with the certificate itself.
Why has project manager pay grown slowly?
Demand is deep and steady rather than spiking, so pay rose about 7 percent since 2021, well below the newer tech roles that doubled that.
Method: bands are the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of live US postings with stated pay, shrunk toward the official OEWS anchor by sample size (the “blended” figure). Trend is the OEWS annual median for SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) code 13-1082. Unemployment is the 2025 BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) CPS (Current Population Survey) annual-average rate for “Project management specialists.” Live corpus 1,772 observations, 2026-07-23. Definitions in the glossary.