$15.00 an hour is the lowest starting rate on any Best Buy store posting, and 500 of the 1,148 sales associate and warehouse associate postings we opened on November 9, 2026 start exactly there. We didn’t find a single posting under that. California stores most often start at $16.90, and the Tukwila, Washington store starts at $21.65.
Best Buy starting pay is easy to look up, because the company prints a pay range on nearly every store posting in all 50 states. You’ll know your store’s number before you apply. What you can’t see is where inside that range your offer will land. And the ranges are wide.
What Best Buy postings list as starting pay
Every Best Buy store posting carries an hourly pay range, and the bottom of that range is the number to plan on. The most common range in our pull was $15.00 to $18.75 an hour, listed on 286 postings. Next came $15.00 to $18.00 on 214 postings and $15.50 to $20.15 on 180.
That’s a lot of room. The top typically sat 27% higher than the bottom, and never less than 20%. When we pulled Lowe’s postings two days earlier, the top of a range was only about 5% over the bottom. A gap that wide leaves room for two new hires at one store to start at different rates.
Self-reported averages run lower than what the company posts. PayScale lists an average of $14 an hour for a Best Buy retail sales associate, built from employee submissions, and Indeed puts the Dallas sales associate average at about $14.57. Both Dallas postings we opened started at $15.50.
Best Buy starting pay by state
Best Buy starting pay is $15.00 an hour in 31 states, mostly in the Midwest and South, and climbs on the coasts. New York and New Jersey stores start at $16.00 or more, California at $16.90, Connecticut at $16.94 and Washington at $17.13 or more.
| Where you’d work | Bottom of the posted range | What the postings listed |
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Utah | $15.00 | Every posting in these five states started at $15.00, including all 45 in North Carolina |
| Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana | $15.00 | 51 of 53 Ohio postings and 41 of 42 in Wisconsin started at $15.00; a few stores posted $15.50 |
| Texas | $15.00 to $15.50 | 42 of 84 postings at $15.50; Austin $16.00; Midland and Odessa $17.50 |
| Florida | $15.00 to $16.50 | Pensacola $15.00, Tampa $15.50, Miami $16.00, Orlando $16.50 |
| Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado | $16.00 most often | Smaller cities start at $15.00 to $15.50; Chicago starts at $17.05 |
| New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts | $16.00 and up | Buffalo $16.00; Brooklyn $17.50; Valley Stream, New York $18.50 |
| Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon | $16.50 | Oregon stores most often posted $16.80 |
| California, Connecticut | $16.90 to $16.94 | 50 of 97 California postings at $16.90; all 18 Connecticut postings at $16.94 |
| Montana | $17.00 | All 12 Montana postings listed $17.00 to $22.10 |
| Washington | $17.13 and up | Spokane and Olympia $17.13; Bellevue $18.00; Seattle $21.30; Tukwila $21.65 |
Method: on November 9, 2026, we opened all 2,258 open postings on Best Buy’s careers job search one at a time and kept the two entry-level store roles, retail sales associate and retail warehouse associate. That left 1,148 postings with an hourly range at 580 stores. Of those, 941 were seasonal holiday jobs, so this is a November snapshot. A state with a single posting, such as Wyoming, tells you about one store and nothing more. Specialist, Geek Squad and supervisor postings were counted separately.
Best Buy starting pay in Texas
If you’re applying in Texas, your store falls into one of two main bands. Half of the 84 Texas postings, including Dallas, Arlington and Denton, listed $15.50 to $20.15. Another 30, in cities such as Brownsville, Corpus Christi, El Paso and Abilene, started at $15.00. Austin stores mostly posted $16.00, and the Midland and Odessa stores posted $17.50, the highest start in the state.
California and Washington
California’s floor was $16.90, and half of the state’s 97 postings sat on it. Bay Area and Los Angeles stores go higher: San Francisco posted $19.61, Mountain View $19.70 and West Hollywood $20.25, with a top of $29.00.
Washington had the highest numbers anywhere. A sales associate posting at the Tukwila store listed $21.65 to $32.25, and a warehouse associate posting at Seattle Northgate listed $21.30 to $31.50.
Florida and New York
Florida climbs as you go south and toward the big metros: $15.00 in Pensacola and Tallahassee, $15.50 in Tampa, $16.00 in Miami and Naples, $16.50 in Orlando and Jacksonville. New York does the same thing from west to east. Buffalo and Rochester start at $16.00, Brooklyn and Staten Island at $17.50, and Valley Stream at $18.50.
Does the job you pick change your starting rate?
The job you pick doesn’t change the starting rate at a Best Buy store. At all 332 stores that had both a sales associate and a warehouse associate posting, the two roles listed the identical range. Seasonal and regular postings matched at each store too, and so did part time and full time.
We could compare seasonal against regular postings for the same role at 134 stores, and part time against full time at 87. Every pair matched. A holiday hire at the Cary, North Carolina store sees $15.00 to $18.75 whether the posting says sales floor or warehouse.
What differs is the work you’d do. The warehouse posting asks for the ability to move up to 100 pounds. The sales associate posting asks for three months of experience in retail or another fast-paced, team-oriented setting.
So where does the money go up? One title higher. Retail sales specialist postings usually share the associate’s bottom, but 72 of 219 stores gave the specialist a higher top, and vendor roles such as Verizon and Bose listed up to $26.60. Geek Squad agent postings in stores started at $15.00 more often than not. Supervisor postings started between $18.43 and $24.73.
Do Best Buy associates make commission? None of the 1,718 store postings we opened uses the word. They say only that “certain roles, where market norms demand it, are eligible for various forms of incentive pay.” You’ll want to plan on the hourly rate.
Best Buy vs Lowe’s and Home Depot starting pay
Best Buy’s floor matches Lowe’s and sits below Home Depot in our three pulls. Lowe’s starting pay also bottomed out at $15.00, in the 13 states where Lowe’s prints a range. Our Home Depot starting pay sample of 554 postings had a typical low end of $18.50.
Don’t treat those gaps as exact. The three samples were pulled on different days and don’t cover the same mix of states. If two of these stores are hiring in your town, you can put the two postings side by side. Best Buy makes that easy, because its range is printed in every state.
What the starting rate adds up to
At $15.00 an hour, a Best Buy associate earns about $1,300 a month at 20 hours a week, $1,950 at 30 hours and $2,600 at 40, before taxes. At California’s $16.90, 30 hours comes to about $2,197 a month.
The shorter weeks are the ones you’ll most likely get. Of the 1,148 postings in our pull, 1,031 were part time, and most were holiday jobs. Our hourly to salary calculator runs the same math for any rate, and the 2026 seasonal hiring tracker lists which other retailers are adding holiday staff.
What about raises once you’re in? In an r/BestBuyWorkers thread where employees compared pay, one longtime worker described what happens when starting pay goes up:
“that’s why this company is infuriating. a good company, lets make one up and call it Costco, will give equity raises to long term employees when the minimum wage goes up. so that if they have to pay their new employees 5 dollars more, all current employees will be given that adjustment to not lose the longterm talent they currently have. pretty sure BBY wouldn’t pay us if they could get away with it.”
– r/BestBuyWorkers, May 2026 (18 upvotes)
That’s one employee’s account, and we can’t confirm how Best Buy adjusts pay for existing staff. It’s still a reason to settle your starting rate with care, because it’s the number you have a say in.
You’ll wait a while for your first check, too. A reply to a new hire who was waiting on one put it this way:
“2 weeks later with 1 week paycheck or 3 weeks later with 2 week paycheck depending on your start date and their payroll”
– r/BestBuyWorkers, November 2026 (2 upvotes)
Another reply in that thread says you don’t need to guess, because the first pay date is printed on your offer letter.
Asking where in the range your offer sits
Ask where in the posted range your offer would sit, and ask once the manager has shown interest: near the end of the interview or when the offer comes. The posting already gives you the range. Your spot inside it is the open question.
Say this: “The posting lists $15.50 to $20.15 for this store. With my year on the sales floor at my last job, where in that range would I start?”
Not this: “How much does this pay?”
The first version tells the manager you opened the posting, and it hands them a reason to go higher than the bottom. Don’t have experience to point to? Then plan on the bottom of the range and ask when pay gets reviewed. For what the interview itself covers, our Best Buy interview questions page goes role by role.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Best Buy pay per hour?
Best Buy pays entry-level store associates from $15.00 an hour in 31 states to $16.90 in California and $21.65 at its Tukwila, Washington store, based on the pay ranges on 1,148 postings we opened in November 2026.
How much does Best Buy pay 16 and 17 year olds?
Best Buy postings list one pay range per store with no separate rate by age, so a 16 or 17 year old applying for a sales or warehouse associate job sees the same range as everyone else. Best Buy’s careers FAQ says you must be at least 16 to work there. Most retail sales specialist postings, 406 of 451, require you to be 18.
Is Best Buy starting pay different for part-time jobs?
Best Buy starting pay is the same hourly range for part-time and full-time postings at each store. All 87 store-and-role pairs we could compare matched. Part time changes your hours, not your rate.
Is Best Buy a good first job?
Best Buy can work as a first job: it hires from age 16, starts at $15.00 an hour or more in every state, and its sales associate posting promises product training. One catch is that the same posting lists three months of retail or similar experience as a basic qualification.