How much do IT support specialists make?

IT Support Specialist salary 2026 · BLS occupation: Computer User Support Specialists (SOC 15-1232) · Updated October 28, 2026

Answer

IT support specialists in the US earned a median of $61,860 a year ($29.74 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned $49,000 to $79,040.

Median annual pay: $61,860; Mean $67,330
Median hourly pay: $29.74; Mean $32.37
Typical range (10th–90th): $41.0K–$101K; $40,980 to $100,540
US jobs: 717,190; −3.5% projected, 2025–35

BLS OEWS, May 2025, released April 30, 2026. Wages include tips, commissions and production bonuses but not overtime premiums, shift differentials, other bonuses or benefits; self-employed workers are not included. Methodology

How to become an IT support specialist: steps, years and cost · Best-paying state after cost of living: District of Columbia

IT Support Specialist pay range

Annual wages, May 2025

10th percentile$40,980
25th percentile$49,000
Median$61,860
75th percentile$79,040
90th percentile$100,540

Half of all IT support specialists earned more than $61,860 and half earned less. The lowest-paid 10% made under $40,980; the top 10% made over $100,540. The middle 50%, from the 25th to the 75th percentile, ran from $49,000 to $79,040.

These percentiles describe everyone in the occupation at one time. They are not pay steps by years of experience: they mix new and senior workers, different states, employers and hours. Pay generally rises with experience, credentials and specialization, but BLS does not publish pay by experience.

Percentile	Annual	Hourly	Monthly
10th	$40,980	$19.70	$3,415
25th	$49,000	$23.56	$4,083
Median (50th)	$61,860	$29.74	$5,155
75th	$79,040	$38.00	$6,587
90th	$100,540	$48.34	$8,378
Mean (average)	$67,330	$32.37	$5,611

IT Support Specialist salary by state

Median annual pay; cost of living from BEA regional price parities 2024

Median annual pay for IT support specialists by state. Darker tiles pay more.

Highest-paying states

1. District of Columbia $80,950
2. California $79,570
3. Washington $75,220
4. Massachusetts $75,070
5. New York $72,560

Lowest-paying states

51. Arkansas $46,360
50. South Dakota $48,260
49. Alabama $49,630
48. Oklahoma $52,040
47. South Carolina $52,080

Best after cost of living: District of Columbia. Its median of $80,950 is worth about $73,657 at national-average prices.


Alabama	$49,630	49	$55,875	47	$23.86	7,360	3.48
Alaska	$63,110	13	$61,656	29	$30.34	950	2.90
Arizona	$61,410	18	$60,997	32	$29.53	18,780	5.80
Arkansas	$46,360	51	$53,326	50	$22.29	4,390	3.37
California	$79,570	2	$71,866	2	$38.25	74,490	4.09
Colorado	$71,900	6	$69,771	6	$34.57	16,740	5.83
Connecticut	$70,210	7	$67,764	8	$33.76	9,300	5.48
Delaware	$62,160	17	$62,280	23	$29.89	1,890	3.90
District of Columbia	$80,950	1	$73,657	1	$38.92	3,140	4.48
Florida	$58,740	33	$56,801	46	$28.24	51,220	5.16
Georgia	$60,440	24	$62,767	19	$29.06	25,980	5.31
Hawaii	$56,760	38	$51,623	51	$27.29	2,440	3.89
Idaho	$59,170	30	$61,962	24	$28.45	3,650	4.26
Illinois	$59,860	26	$59,885	38	$28.78	26,060	4.27
Indiana	$56,510	39	$60,549	35	$27.17	13,540	4.23
Iowa	$58,810	31	$67,011	11	$28.27	6,140	3.94
Kansas	$56,150	41	$62,342	22	$27.00	6,780	4.72
Kentucky	$57,850	37	$64,164	17	$27.81	9,460	4.73
Louisiana	$52,440	45	$59,451	39	$25.21	4,780	2.47
Maine	$60,890	21	$62,741	20	$29.28	2,810	4.39
Maryland	$64,750	10	$61,691	28	$31.13	12,200	4.41
Massachusetts	$75,070	4	$70,983	3	$36.09	17,570	4.83
Michigan	$56,240	40	$58,451	42	$27.04	22,090	5.02
Minnesota	$63,630	12	$64,520	13	$30.59	15,320	5.19
Mississippi	$52,230	46	$60,067	37	$25.11	3,830	3.29
Missouri	$59,770	27	$65,814	12	$28.74	13,510	4.60
Montana	$58,460	35	$61,768	27	$28.11	1,640	3.20
Nebraska	$60,830	22	$67,512	9	$29.25	6,380	6.23
Nevada	$57,870	36	$57,882	44	$27.82	6,560	4.23
New Hampshire	$60,660	23	$58,235	43	$29.16	3,910	5.72
New Jersey	$64,470	11	$59,253	40	$31.00	18,200	4.25
New Mexico	$53,280	44	$57,780	45	$25.62	3,290	3.78
New York	$72,560	5	$67,234	10	$34.89	39,100	4.04
North Carolina	$60,120	25	$63,736	18	$28.90	23,100	4.67
North Dakota	$61,310	19	$68,919	7	$29.48	1,400	3.26
Ohio	$59,720	28	$64,371	14	$28.71	22,370	4.03
Oklahoma	$52,040	48	$59,242	41	$25.02	9,600	5.62
Oregon	$62,840	15	$60,797	34	$30.21	8,850	4.50
Pennsylvania	$58,670	34	$60,130	36	$28.21	30,560	5.04
Rhode Island	$62,510	16	$61,117	31	$30.05	1,780	3.55
South Carolina	$52,080	47	$55,553	48	$25.04	9,880	4.29
South Dakota	$48,260	50	$54,478	49	$23.20	1,240	2.72
Tennessee	$55,990	42	$60,945	33	$26.92	11,920	3.63
Texas	$59,490	29	$61,294	30	$28.60	72,030	5.12
Utah	$61,110	20	$61,812	26	$29.38	11,120	6.41
Vermont	$63,030	14	$64,344	15	$30.30	1,630	5.36
Virginia	$65,040	9	$64,330	16	$31.27	20,910	5.09
Washington	$75,220	3	$70,291	4	$36.17	21,860	6.16
West Virginia	$55,350	43	$61,846	25	$26.61	2,250	3.20
Wisconsin	$58,810	32	$62,501	21	$28.27	12,400	4.22
Wyoming	$65,100	8	$70,233	5	$31.30	790	2.80

BLS OEWS, May 2025, state estimates. Adjusted pay = median ÷ (state price level ÷ 100), using BEA regional price parities for 2024; it ignores taxes. Figures for states with few workers in the occupation have larger survey errors and can change sharply from one year to the next. “—” means BLS did not publish the figure. State names link to each state’s highest-paying jobs.

Best-paying metro areas for IT support specialists

385 metro areas with published pay

Highest median pay
Metro area	Median	Adjusted	Jobs
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA	$106,040	$99,409	13,820
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$93,590	$84,756	5,790
Carson City, NV	$93,560	$95,343	560
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$89,440	$77,362	10,770
Vallejo, CA	$81,280	$74,927	330
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA	$80,520	$74,009	960
Napa, CA	$79,050	$70,233	160
Yuba City, CA	$78,420	$75,235	160
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$78,330	$70,483	15,030
Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT	$78,070	$73,055	2,460

Most jobs
Metro area	Jobs	Median	Adjusted
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	36,580	$75,690	$67,242
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	22,600	$60,710	$58,890
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	20,660	$75,070	$66,103
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN	19,680	$60,730	$58,623
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	18,510	$77,860	$71,507
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	15,980	$62,110	$62,074
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	15,030	$78,330	$70,483
Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ	14,310	$62,310	$60,310
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA	13,820	$106,040	$99,409
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH	13,580	$77,850	$71,906

BLS OEWS, May 2025, metropolitan statistical areas; adjusted with BEA metro price parities (2024).

What moves IT support specialist pay: employers and settings

The type of employer moves pay. Software publishers pay IT support specialists a median of $65,530 and corporate headquarters (management of companies) $63,890. Colleges and universities pay $61,310; IT services firms, the largest employer, pay $60,440; and K-12 schools pay $57,260. Staffing agencies (employment services) are lowest among the major employers at $50,520.

Government roles pay well in this field. State government has a median of $72,530 and the small federal group $74,510; that compares with $61,620 at private employers and $60,600 in local government.

By location, the District of Columbia leads at $80,950, ahead of California at $79,570, Washington at $75,220, Massachusetts at $75,070, and New York at $72,560. The lowest are Alabama at $49,630, South Dakota at $48,260, and Arkansas at $46,360. The overall range runs from $40,980, the 10th percentile, to $100,540, the 90th; the hourly median is $29.74. BLS does not publish pay by support tier or certification, but employers that need deeper network, systems or product skills tend to post higher-paying roles than tier 1 phone desks.

Where IT support specialists work
Industry	Share of jobs	Median pay
Computer Systems Design and Related Services	22%	$60,440
Elementary and Secondary Schools	5.9%	$57,260
Management of Companies and Enterprises	5.5%	$63,890
Software Publishers	4.2%	$65,530
Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools	3.9%	$61,310
Employment Services	3.8%	$50,520

Private employers and government
Employer type	Jobs	Median pay
Private employers	604,950	$61,620
Federal government (incl. Postal Service)	1,220	$74,510
State government (incl. schools and hospitals)	40,710	$72,530
Local government (incl. schools and hospitals)	70,310	$60,600

BLS OEWS, May 2025, national industry-specific and ownership estimates (4-digit NAICS).

IT Support Specialist pay over time

Median annual pay, 2019–2025

$61.9K $52.3K

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025

Nominal median (dollars of each year)In May 2025 dollars (adjusted with CPI-U)

The median rose from $52,270 in 2019 to $61,860 in 2025, up 18% in nominal dollars. After inflation, the 2019 median is worth $65,613 in May 2025 dollars, so real pay fell 6% over the period.

The series starts in 2019 because BLS changed how it defines or publishes this occupation before then, so earlier figures are not comparable.

BLS OEWS, May 2025 and earlier May releases; inflation from the CPI-U, US city average, May of each year.

What IT support specialists do

An IT support specialist is the person employees or customers call when a laptop will not boot, a password is locked, email stops syncing or a printer drops off the network. Job titles vary: help desk technician, desktop support, IT technician, IT specialist or computer support specialist. The official occupation is computer user support specialists.

The work is organized in tiers. Tier 1 help desk staff take calls, chats and tickets, walk people through fixes and reset accounts. Desktop support techs go to the desk or the server closet to replace hardware, image new machines and set up phones, docks and monitors. Harder problems move up to system administrators, network staff or the software vendor. The largest single employer is IT services and managed service providers, which handle support for many client companies at once; schools, colleges, corporate offices and software companies also employ large numbers. Many jobs are on site, some are remote, and support for hospitals, schools or 24-hour operations can include evenings, weekends and on-call rotations.

A typical day

Work through a queue of tickets, calls and chat requests from users
Reset passwords, restore locked-out accounts and fix permission problems in Active Directory or similar tools
Set up laptops and phones for new hires and wipe or recover them when people leave
Diagnose slow computers, Wi-Fi drops, printer errors and software crashes
Swap failed parts such as drives, memory, screens and keyboards
Document each fix in the ticket system and write short how-to guides
Escalate outages and hard problems to network, server or vendor support

Also called: it support, help desk, computer support specialist, help desk technician, it technician, it specialist, desktop support, computer tech (computer technician).

How to become an IT support specialist

Full guide

You can become an IT support specialist in about 3 to 12 months by learning computer and networking basics through a certificate program or self-study and passing the CompTIA A+ exams. A degree is not required for most help desk jobs, and there is no license; a two-year associate degree helps for more technical roles.

Typical time: 1 to 2 years; Fastest: 3 to 6 months
Minimum education: High school diploma plus IT certifications; some college or an associate degree is common
License: Not licensed (certification optional, sometimes required by employers)
Typical training cost: $4.9K–$9.3K; See the guide for what it includes

Read the step-by-step guide to becoming an IT support specialist: each step with its time and cost, education options, exams, licensing and advancement.

Is it worth it? Training cost against pay

Compare careers

Training time: 1 to 2 years; Typical path in our guide
Training cost: $4.9K–$9.3K; Tuition and exam fees, before aid
Median pay: $61,860; $10,880 above the all-jobs median ($50,980)
Cost vs. one year's pay: 8–15%; Training cost as a share of a year at the median

Once qualified, the pay difference over the typical US job at the median ($10,880 a year before tax) would repay the training cost in less than a year after training ends (1 to 2 years in our guide). This is a rough guide: it ignores taxes, financial aid, interest, earnings given up while training and how pay changes over a career. How we calculate ROI.

Job outlook for IT support specialists

BLS Employment Projections 2025–35

Projected growth: −3.5%; All occupations +3.5%
Jobs in 2025: 750,600; 724,400 projected for 2035
Openings each year: 39,700; New jobs plus replacements
Self-employed: 2.5%; Not in the pay figures above

This is one of the few computer jobs BLS expects to shrink. It projects computer user support specialist employment to fall 3.5% from 2025 to 2035, from 750,600 to 724,400, while all occupations grow 3.5%. BLS points to two reasons: more companies send support work offshore, and more routine troubleshooting is handled by chatbots and generative AI tools.

The field is still large, so about 39,700 openings a year are expected as people move into other IT jobs or leave the workforce. The pressure falls mainly on routine troubleshooting, the work easiest to send offshore or hand to AI tools; problems that need hands-on or complex work are harder to replace.

Related careers and their pay

Software Engineer$135,980
Cybersecurity Analyst$129,180
Network Engineer$134,050
UX Designer$104,000
Computer Network Support Specialists$76,220

Related occupations from O*NET 31.0; median annual pay from BLS OEWS, May 2025.

IT Support Specialist salary FAQ

How much do IT support specialists make an hour?

The median hourly wage for IT support specialists was $29.74 in May 2025. The lowest-paid 10% earned less than $19.70 an hour and the highest-paid 10% more than $48.34. Hourly figures are BLS estimates for all workers in the occupation, full-time and part-time.

Which state pays IT support specialists the most?

District of Columbia has the highest median pay for IT support specialists, $80,950 a year, followed by California ($79,570) and Washington ($75,220). After adjusting for each state's price level, District of Columbia comes out ahead at about $73,657 in national-average dollars.

Do IT support specialists make six figures?

Some do: based on the BLS percentiles, between 10% and 25% of IT support specialists earn more than $100,000 a year. The median is $61,860, and the top 10% earn more than $100,540. Pay generally rises with experience, specialization and location.

What is the difference between help desk and desktop support?

Help desk is usually the first line: technicians answer calls, chats and tickets, reset accounts and fix what can be done remotely. Desktop support is the next step, handling problems that need someone at the machine, such as replacing hardware, setting up workstations or fixing local network issues. Many people start on the help desk and move to desktop support within a year or two. Smaller offices often combine both roles.

Is IT support a good entry point into tech?

It is one of the most common ones. Support jobs often require no degree, and they teach the basics of operating systems, networks, accounts and security in a real workplace. BLS notes that many support specialists later move into security, network administration or software roles. Because the occupation itself is projected to shrink, plan to build skills toward one of those next jobs rather than staying in tier 1.

Can IT support specialists work from home?

Some can. Help desk roles that handle calls, chat and remote-control sessions are often fully remote or hybrid, especially at software companies and managed service providers. Desktop support, school and hospital IT, and any job involving hardware setup or repairs need you on site. Remote roles tend to attract more applicants, so on-site experience can be the easier way in.

Sources

Data updated October 28, 2026 · Text checked against its sources October 28, 2026

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates, released April 30, 2026, SOC 15-1232
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–2035, released September 2026
O*NET 31.0 Database (15-1232.00), U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0; tasks rewritten by Careers and Salaries
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities by state and metro area, 2024
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), US city average, May values
U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard field-of-study and institution data, most recent cohorts, released 2026-10-15
Computer Support Specialists: Occupational Outlook Handbook, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · checked October 28, 2026
Computer User Support Specialists (15-1232.00), O*NET OnLine · checked October 28, 2026
A+ Core 1 Certification V15, CompTIA · checked October 28, 2026
Google IT Support Professional Certificate, Coursera / Google · checked October 28, 2026
How to Renew Your CompTIA Certification, CompTIA · checked October 28, 2026
A+ Certification, CompTIA · checked October 28, 2026
License Finder, CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor) · checked October 28, 2026

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