Average Salary in Michigan (MI)

Michigan's economy is still defined by the auto industry, but the story is more nuanced than the Big Three headlines suggest. Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler) remain three of the largest private employers, but the state's real employment engine for most of the past two decades has been healthcare. The University of Michigan health system alone employs over 30,000 people, and Corewell Health (the 2022 merger of Beaumont and Spectrum), Henry Ford Health, and Trinity Health Michigan are each among the top ten private employers statewide. The $66,986 median household income is below the national average, but the cost-of-living index of 90 means dollars go 10% further than the US baseline. Grand Rapids, on the western side of the state, has quietly become a furniture-manufacturing and healthcare hub with costs meaningfully below Metro Detroit. The flat 4.25% state income tax is among the lowest in the Great Lakes region, and Michigan has no local income tax in most cities (Detroit, Grand Rapids, and a few others are the exceptions). The $10.56/hour minimum wage sits above the federal floor and is adjusted annually. Property taxes run near the national median. Full salary and employment data follow.