Electrical Engineer Salary in Florida 2026,
$104,780 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $104,780 a year, or $50.38 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 13.1% below the national median of $120,630, with no state income tax deducted. The band runs $65,090 at the 10th percentile to $164,210 at the 90th, with the middle half between $80,860 and $131,550. Sector and clearance rather than location determine position within it.

Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin at $123,560, then Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville $122,020, Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford $119,080, Jacksonville $116,480 and Panama City-Panama City Beach $112,700. Every published metro is above the state median and every one is a defence, aerospace or simulation market — an unusually clean signal about where this occupation's Florida value sits.

Rarely, in the sectors that dominate here. The Florida Board of Professional Engineers licenses professional engineers, but the licence is required only to offer engineering services to the public or to seal engineering documents — building services and consulting practice. Defence, aerospace and manufacturing electrical engineering falls under the statutory industrial exemption. What actually gates that work is security clearance eligibility and export control compliance, neither of which the state administers.

Because the published median averages the concentrated defence and aerospace clusters with a much broader base of general commercial and building-systems electrical work across the state — and every published metro sits above the median, which tells you the metro-level work is not what is dragging it down. Nationally the figure of $120,630 is lifted by semiconductor and technology-sector electrical engineering in high-cost markets. In take-home terms, Florida's zero income tax closes most of the gap.

Defence electronics and systems, spacecraft and launch electrical systems, and the simulation and training sector. Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin at $123,560 sits near Eglin, Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville at $122,020 is the Space Coast, and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford at $119,080 is the simulation cluster. All three require clearance for most roles, and the $131,550 seventy-fifth percentile and $164,210 ninetieth are largely what cleared technical leadership in those programmes earns.

Because Florida's electrical engineering value is concentrated in places, and the statewide median includes a large volume of general commercial and building-systems electrical work spread across markets too small or too diffuse to publish a metro row. The Panhandle defence corridor, the Space Coast, Orlando's simulation industry and Jacksonville's naval and industrial base are where the programme-scale, clearance-gated work sits, and each publishes between $112,700 and $123,560. That every published row exceeds $104,780 is not a coincidence — it is the shape of a state where the identifiable engineering clusters are the high-paying part and the remainder is not.

SOC 17-2071 covers electrical engineers across every sector, so a cleared defence systems engineer on the Space Coast and a building-services electrical engineer in a consulting practice sit in the same estimate despite entirely different markets and licensing positions. The wage measure also excludes clearance premiums and programme bonuses, both common in Florida's defence sector. And with a location quotient of 0.73 the state's sample is smaller relative to its population than in most large states.

Security clearance first — it is the gate to the majority of the state's well-paid electrical engineering work and no qualification substitutes for it. Sector second: defence, space and simulation pay above the general commercial market, and the metro table proves it. Technical specialisation third, with power electronics, RF and embedded systems the most valued in these programmes. And technical leadership fourth, reaching the Florida 75th percentile of $131,550 and the 90th at $164,210, none of it taxed by the state.