21. Kansas City, Missouri: more than $122,770
• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Missouri: $351,497
• Median income in Kansas City: $61,385
• Metro-area population: 2.1 million
Although Kansas City is in the middle of the country on the border between Missouri and Kansas, the number one employer in the Kansas City metropolitan area is the United States federal government, with a whopping 146 federal agencies maintaining offices in the area. That’s because Kansas City is one of ten regional administrative office cities for the United States government. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) runs a major 1,400,000 square foot administrative office in Kansas City employing nearly 2,700 workers full time there with a seasonal swell to 4,000 workers during tax season every spring, and this office is one of only two locations that process physical tax returns by U.S. taxpayers Honeywell employs nearly 2,700 workers at their Kansas City Plant, where the company produces and assembles 85% of the components of the United States Department of Defense’s nuclear arsenal.