Video Editor Pay by State Study

Key takeaways

1. Film and video editors earn the most in New York, a median $103,440 a year, followed by the District of Columbia ($98,830) and Massachusetts ($92,130). See details
2. Adjusted for local prices with the BEA's regional price parities, New York still leads among states with 300 or more editors, at $95,848 in national prices; Missouri climbs from 17th to 12th and Washington falls from 11th to 16th. See details
3. California employs 8,110 film and video editors and New York 3,710; with Florida, they hold 56.3% of editors in the states BLS reports. See details
4. Editors are 2.7 times as concentrated in California's workforce as in the nation's, and 2.33 times in New York's. See details
5. Los Angeles is the largest metro market, with 6,010 editors at a median $83,210; New York-Newark-Jersey City has 3,430 at $104,590. See details

Which state pays video editors the most?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay estimates for film and video editors (occupation 27-4032) in 43 states and territories (BLS OEWS). In May 2025 the highest median was in New York, at $103,440 a year, followed by the District of Columbia ($98,830), Massachusetts ($92,130) and California ($88,490). The lowest published medians were in Alaska ($38,800) and South Dakota ($39,090).

Where does editor pay go furthest?

High-paying states are also expensive. Dividing each median by the state's regional price parity, the BEA's measure of how prices compare with the national average (BEA), puts pay in national prices. Among the 21 states with 300 or more editors, New York still leads at $95,848. Missouri gains the most, from 17th to 12th, and Washington loses the most, from 11th to 16th.

Where do video editors work?

California employs 8,110 film and video editors and New York 3,710. With Florida (1,490), they hold 56.3% of the editors in the states BLS reports. The location quotient compares each state's share of editors with the national share: editors are 2.7 times as concentrated in California and 2.33 times in New York.

Which cities have the most editing jobs?

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim has 6,010 film and video editors at a median $83,210, the largest market. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ follows with 3,430 at $104,590, then San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA with 740 at $109,930.

What this means

• The money and the jobs sit in the same few places. California and New York hold most editing jobs and the highest pay.
• Prices narrow the gap. After the price adjustment, coastal medians shrink, but New York still leads.
• Remote work blurs the map. These are employees counted where they work; freelancers are not in them.

For national pay and hiring trends, see our video editing statistics; for what companies bill per hour, our GSA video production rates study. Mark Studios edits video for creators and brands.

How we ran the study

Pay and jobs. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025 (time-series files): state and metro estimates of employment, mean and median annual pay and location quotient for film and video editors (27-4032), read November 1, 2026. BLS withholds estimates that do not meet its publication standards, so some states are missing.

Prices. The BEA's regional price parities for all items by state, 2024 (SARPP), where the national average is 100. A state's median in national prices is its median divided by its parity over 100. The District of Columbia is treated as a state; Puerto Rico has no parity and is left out of the price ranking.

Limitations

• Employees only. OEWS excludes the self-employed, a large part of the editing workforce.
• Small states are noisy. Where few editors are employed, a median can move a lot between surveys, which is why the price ranking uses states with 300 or more.
• Different years. Pay is for May 2025 and price parities for 2024.
• Price parities are state averages. Prices inside a state, such as Manhattan against upstate New York, differ.

How to cite this study

Link to the section you use, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/video-editor-pay-by-state-study#prices. To cite the study as a whole:

Mark Studios. "Video Editor Pay by State Study." Published November 1, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/video-editor-pay-by-state-study

@misc{markstudios_video_editor_pay_by_state_study_2026,
  author = {{Mark Studios}},
  title = {{Video Editor Pay by State Study}},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/video-editor-pay-by-state-study},
  note = {Last verified 2026-11-01}
}

Our calculations and the CSV are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. The underlying BLS and BEA data are public.

Sources

Every state (CSV)

Widely quoted video statistics on other topics are traced to their origin, with a verdict on each, in our research fact-check.

1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, time-series files (oe.data.0.Current, oe.area). Accessed 2026-11-01.
2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. Accessed 2026-11-01.
3. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional price parities by state and metro area. Accessed 2026-11-01.
4. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional price parities by state (SARPP), 2024. Accessed 2026-11-01.

Update policy and change log

We plan to update the page each spring, when BLS publishes the next OEWS estimates. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.

• November 1, 2026: First published.