PR Salary 2026: $74,750 Median, by State and Metro

The median annual wage for public relations specialists in the United States was $74,750 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Pay runs from $102,740 in the District of Columbia to $56,730 in West Virginia, and from $117,620 in the San Jose metro area to $64,550 in Philadelphia. The BLS counted about 314,500 public relations specialist jobs in 2025 and projects 2% employment growth from 2025 to 2035, with about 23,000 openings a year. Public relations managers earn roughly twice as much, with a median of $146,910 in May 2025, per BLS data tracked under a separate code.

Updated October 25, 2026. Wage and employment figures below are the BLS May 2025 and 2025 figures from the Occupational Outlook Handbook and the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) tables.

What does the national PR salary picture look like?

The BLS classifies public relations specialists under Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code 27-3031. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) and OEWS publish these figures for the occupation:

The median is the 50th percentile: half of PR specialists earn more and half earn less. The mean sits above the median because top earners pull the average up. The national median was $67,440 in May 2022, $66,750 in May 2023, $69,780 in May 2024 and $74,750 in May 2025, a rise of 7.1 percent in the latest year. The engines tested in the PR Salary Index quoted about $67,000 to $68,000 in June 2026, which matches the May 2022 median rather than the current one. For where the openings are, see the PR job market in 2026.

How does PR salary change by experience level?

PayScale's 2026 data for public relations specialists in the United States shows a flat curve between early and late career:

Experience level	Median salary	Range
Entry-level (0 to 1 years)	about $46,000	$39,000 to $68,000
Early career (1 to 4 years)	about $50,000 to $55,000	-
Mid-career (5 to 9 years)	about $64,000	$48,000 to $86,000
Experienced (10 to 19 years)	about $69,000	$49,000 to $87,000
Late career (20+ years)	about $72,000 to $80,000	-

A mid-career PR specialist with 5 to 9 years of experience earns roughly 39% more than an entry-level hire, based on PayScale's medians. EPR's reading is that this flat progression is a structural reason senior practitioners leave for in-house roles, where corporate pay scales rise faster in mid-career. PayScale is a self-reported salary database, not a federal survey, so treat the ranges as estimates.

Internship pay sits below these entry-level figures and is measured separately. A 5W Research audit of 50 U.S. PR internship postings found 23 that state a clear pay rate, with hourly rates from $16 to $45, as reported in EPR's PR internship pay story.

How does PR specialist pay compare to PR manager pay?

The BLS tracks public relations managers separately under SOC 11-2032, and their median pay is roughly double the specialist median. The May 2025 figures:

• PR specialists (27-3031): median $74,750
• PR managers (11-2032): median $146,910, per OEWS data compiled by WageDex
• Public relations and fundraising managers combined, as the Occupational Outlook Handbook groups them: median $136,470 (fundraising managers alone: $125,470)

Either manager figure sits above the specialist 90th percentile of $135,150, so a typical manager earns more than nine in ten specialists. BLS says public relations managers typically need five years or more of related work experience, which fits the jump in pay. The jump from specialist to manager reflects the transition from execution to leadership. It also reflects a title distinction that maps poorly to how PR agencies structure their teams. A senior vice president at a mid-tier agency may hold a title that reads as manager but do work the BLS classifies as specialist work, because the BLS categories follow job function descriptions, not agency titles. See how to write a PR resume in 2026 for the language that signals manager-level scope, and PR job descriptions for how titles map to scope.

What drives PR pay beyond the median?

Four variables move an individual's pay above or below the national median: geography, sector, employer type, and how recently the person negotiated. These are EPR's reading of the market, not BLS measurements, and EPR does not publish dollar premiums for sector or employer type because reliable public data does not exist.

• Geography. The state and metro tables below show clear differences, with the District of Columbia and several coastal states and metros well above the national median. Cost of living offsets part of the gap.
• Sector. Specialized work such as crisis, financial communications, healthcare, and public affairs tends to command more than generalist consumer PR, because the stakes and the regulatory knowledge required are higher.
• Employer type. Agencies of different sizes pay differently across levels, and in-house roles tend to pay less early and more at the senior end, especially where equity or bonuses are part of the package. The agency-versus-in-house guide covers the trade-offs.
• Time since the last negotiation. Pay inside a single role can drift below market if it is not revisited, which is why PR salary negotiation matters across a career.

For any salary figure you see quoted, ask for the source and the year. Pay data goes stale quickly, and many widely shared salary tables do not name a source at all.

Which states pay PR specialists the most?

The District of Columbia pays PR specialists the most, with a May 2025 median of $102,740, followed by Washington at $87,470 and California at $85,030, according to BLS OEWS data as compiled by WageDex. West Virginia has the lowest state median in the table, at $56,730.

State	Median wage, May 2025	Versus US median
District of Columbia	$102,740	37% above
Washington	$87,470	17% above
California	$85,030	14% above
Connecticut	$84,990	14% above
New York	$81,250	9% above
Colorado	$80,680	8% above
Virginia	$80,380	8% above
New Jersey	$80,130	7% above
Massachusetts	$79,660	7% above
Maryland	$79,560	6% above
Illinois	$76,380	2% above
Georgia	$73,200	2% below
Texas	$65,160	13% below
Florida	$63,660	15% below
Pennsylvania	$57,460	23% below
West Virginia	$56,730	24% below

Which metro areas pay PR specialists the most?

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara pays PR specialists the most of any BLS metro area, at a May 2025 median of $117,620, followed by San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont at $102,520 and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria at $101,680.

Metro area	Median wage, May 2025	Versus US median
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$117,620	57% above
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$102,520	37% above
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	$101,680	36% above
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$96,000	28% above
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$84,130	13% above
Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO	$82,930	11% above
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH	$81,440	9% above
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$81,240	9% above
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$79,860	7% above
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	$78,920	6% above
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN	$77,050	3% above
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX	$69,470	7% below
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	$69,280	7% below
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX	$68,320	9% below
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL	$64,600	14% below
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD	$64,550	14% below

About 22,810 PR specialists work in the Washington metro area, according to WageDex's profile of the BLS data. WageDex marks metro estimates built on fewer than 100 workers as less precise, and none of the metros in this table carries that mark.

The New York premium here is smaller than the engine-quoted figures. The PR Salary Index reports a 25 to 35 percent VP-level premium for New York, while the BLS median for all specialists in the New York metro is 13 percent above the national median. The two figures measure different things: AI-engine ranges for one seniority level versus a BLS median across all experience levels.

Which industries employ the most PR specialists?

Educational services employs the largest share of PR specialists, at 14 percent of jobs in 2025, followed by advertising, public relations and related services at 12 percent and government at 11 percent, according to the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. Government pays the most among the five largest employing industries.

Industry	Share of PR specialist jobs, 2025	Median wage, May 2025
Educational services; state, local, and private	14%	$66,220
Advertising, public relations, and related services	12%	$77,480
Government, excluding state and local education and hospitals	11%	$81,350
Healthcare and social assistance	7%	$64,550
Grantmaking and giving services and social advocacy organizations	6%	$71,720

BLS assigns pay to the employer's industry, not to a PR specialty. A specialist working on healthcare accounts at an agency falls under advertising, public relations, and related services, and the same specialist working in-house at a hospital falls under healthcare and social assistance. The OOH publishes these industry figures on its public relations specialists page at bls.gov/ooh.

How wide is the gap between practitioner pay and C-suite pay?

Measured against the BLS median of $74,750, Omnicom CEO John Wren's 2025 total of $69,865,846 is a ratio of roughly 935 to 1. That is EPR's own calculation, using BLS occupational data. It is distinct from the 1,219 to 1 pay ratio Omnicom disclosed in its 2026 proxy statement, which compares Wren's pay to the company's global median employee compensation of $57,337. The two ratios measure different things: one is a corporate disclosure required under Dodd-Frank, and the other is an industry-wide comparison. Full sourcing on the disclosed figure is in Omnicom CEO Pay Ratio Hits 1,219 to 1. For the underlying executive pay data, see the PR Executive Compensation Index.

The PRSA CEO earns $455,403, which is roughly 6.1 times the BLS median for PR specialists.

What does the BLS data not capture?

The BLS data has five limitations.

1. The BLS does not separately track communications specialist, content strategist, social media manager or digital PR specialist titles. Many practitioners with those titles are classified in other SOC codes, such as 27-3043 (writers and authors), 13-1161 (market research analysts and marketing specialists) or 27-3099 (media and communication workers, all other). The PR specialist job count understates the total workforce doing communications work.
2. The OEWS survey covers employer payrolls, so it does not capture freelancers or independent consultants.
3. The BLS median is a national figure that flattens geographic variation. A PR specialist in Manhattan and one in Des Moines face different pay, and the state and metro tables above matter for salary negotiation.
4. The BLS does not compare agency and in-house roles side by side, even though bonus structures, career paths and overtime differ between them.
5. The BLS does not publish pay by PR specialty, such as crisis, healthcare or technology PR. For specialty-level pay, use survey sources that name their method and date, such as the Robert Half salary guide, Glassdoor, PayScale, and PRWeek or PRSA surveys. The PR Salary Index shows which of those sources ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini cite most.

How do you use these numbers in a salary negotiation?

Use the BLS state or metro median as the anchor, adjust for industry, and then check one named survey source for your specialty.

1. Find your state or metro median in the tables above.
2. Compare your employer's industry median with the $74,750 national figure. Government at $81,350 is 9 percent above it, and healthcare and social assistance at $64,550 is 14 percent below it.
3. Check one named survey source for your specialty and seniority, then use the numbers to ask and counter.

These medians cover specialists across all experience levels, so an entry-level offer should sit below them and a senior offer above them. The 2027 PR salary negotiation guide turns the same BLS figures into five steps for making the ask. The PR career ladder describes what each rung does, and the PR careers hub lists every guide by career stage.

Sources

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Public Relations Specialists"
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Public Relations and Fundraising Managers"
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
• WageDex, BLS wage tables for public relations specialists (state, metro and manager estimates)

Related coverage

The PR Job Market in 2026: Where the Hiring Is, PR Careers: Where to Start, What It Pays, How to Move Up, 2027 PR Salary Negotiation Guide, PR Salary Index 2026, The PR Executive Compensation Index 2026, The Highest-Paid CEOs in PR and Communications, How Much Does the PRSA CEO Make?, Omnicom CEO Pay Ratio Hits 1,219 to 1, How to Write a Resume for Public Relations in 2026, Careers in PR and Communications: The Complete Playbook

---