Systems Administrator salary
What a systems administrator actually earns, from 486 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 2026-09-06.
Switch the market above to see systems administrator pay in the 4 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
A systems administrator earns a blended US median near 104,857 dollars, with the typical middle running from 88,476 dollars to 127,242 dollars. The official OEWS median is 96,800 dollars, under the posted figure, because the advertised roles skew senior or well-funded. The official trend has moved up about 16 percent since 2019. By seniority, posted pay runs from roughly 74,557 dollars to 97,075 dollars. Demand is rated high, and 9% of postings are fully remote. The nearest adjacent move on our skill graph is network engineer, at 65 percent coverage; the instrument maps the rest.
Open systems administrator roles
Live openings tagged to this occupation, from company career pages and remote boards. Apply at the source.
NetSuite Systems Administrator - PH at PandobloxPhilippines · RemoteTodayApply- ICT-System-Ingenieur/-in at Bundesamt für Informatik und Telekommunikation BITZollikofen, Bern, Switzerland · RemoteTodayApply
Associate Systems Administrator (R5698) at ShieldaiWichita Metro Area$70k–$105k1d agoApply
ICT-System-Administrator L1–L3 at Weiss + Appetito AGAgriswil, Fribourg, Switzerland1d agoApply- System Engineer Linux at Bison Schweiz AGWinterthur, Zürich, Switzerland1d agoApply
- Senior System Engineer M365/Workplace at Equans Switzerland AGOlten, Solothurn, Switzerland1d agoApply
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$88,476$104,857$127,242
- Canada$58,033$67,501$76,408
- Australia$64,508$78,843$96,761
- United Kingdom$44,342$54,574$68,218
Switzerland · official wage bands
median CHF 9'949/month
Swiss postings do not state pay, so these are not posted salaries: they are the federal wage survey (Lohnstrukturerhebung 2024) for the ISCO group 25 Spezialisten in der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie: standardized gross monthly, full-time, 13th salary included pro rata. The band covers the whole occupation group, which is coarser than this occupation alone.
Annual ≈ CHF 119'388 at the median. Source: Bundesamt für Statistik, LSE 2024.
Top-paying US states
OEWS median by state, highest first.
- Maryland$112,080
- California$106,620
- Virginia$106,610
- New York$104,050
- Washington$103,990
- Hawaii$100,320
Roles that pay more, that these skills already reach
Median pay from each destination’s own postings, with the readiness a systems administrator profile already covers.
- 600 open solutions architect roles$162,988 median · +$58,131 · 18% readiness
- 535 open security engineer roles$154,225 median · +$49,368 · 33% readiness
- 600 open devops engineer roles$141,732 median · +$36,875 · 23% readiness
- 135 open network engineer roles$127,192 median · +$22,335 · 65% readiness
Every measured move out of this role, ranked by readiness: alternative careers for a systems administrator.
Is your offer fair?
Run a specific number through FairElephant, which weighs it against this data, your location, and remote market rates.
Related salaries
- Network Engineer salary$127,192 median
- IT Support Specialist salary$104,742 median
- DevOps Engineer salary$141,732 median
Quick answers
How much does a systems administrator make?
The blended US median is about 104,857 dollars, with a typical range from 88,476 dollars to 127,242 dollars, against an official OEWS median of 96,800 dollars.
Is systems administrator a good career in 2026?
Demand for the role is rated high in our July 2026 corpus, with 9% of postings fully remote. The pay is shown above by seniority and by country.
What can a systems administrator move into?
The nearest adjacent role on our skill graph is network engineer, at 65 percent skill coverage. Run the instrument for the full set of reachable moves.
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 15-1244. Live corpus 486 observations, 2026-09-06. Definitions in the glossary.