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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, And Systems Assemblers Salary: Winston-Salem, NC vs St. Louis, MO-IL

Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, And Systems Assemblers earn a median of $50,080 in Winston-Salem, NC and $70,080 in St. Louis, MO-IL. That is a nominal gap of $20,000 (-28.5%), with St. Louis, MO-IL paying more before any cost-of-living adjustment.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2024 estimates. Cost-of-living adjustment uses BEA Regional Price Parities, most recent release.

$50,080
Winston-Salem, NC median
$54,409 after COL
$70,080
St. Louis, MO-IL median
$73,700 after COL
-28.5%
Nominal gap
St. Louis, MO-IL leads
-26.2%
Adjusted gap
St. Louis, MO-IL leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, St. Louis, MO-IL pays $20,000 more per year than Winston-Salem, NC for aircraft structure, surfaces, rigging, and systems assemblers, a gap of +28.5%.

After adjusting for cost of living, St. Louis, MO-IL still comes out ahead, with roughly $19,291 of extra purchasing power (+26.2% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for aircraft structure, surfaces, rigging, and systems assemblers in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, And Systems Assemblers

Winston-Salem, NC

Median salary
$50,080
Mean salary
$54,300
Employment
180
Location quotient
3.08
Jobs per 1,000
0.7
COL-adjusted median
$54,409
Regional Price Parity
92.0%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, And Systems Assemblers page for Winston-Salem, NC →

Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, And Systems Assemblers

St. Louis, MO-IL

Median salary
$70,080
Mean salary
$66,910
Employment
380
Location quotient
1.32
Jobs per 1,000
0.3
COL-adjusted median
$73,700
Regional Price Parity
95.1%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, And Systems Assemblers page for St. Louis, MO-IL →

Related pages

Keep digging into aircraft structure, surfaces, rigging, and systems assemblers from a different angle.

Common questions about this comparison

What does the cost-of-living adjustment actually do? +

It divides each location's nominal median wage by its Regional Price Parity (RPP), which measures how local prices compare to the national average (100 = national). A wage of $100,000 in an area with RPP 120 has the same purchasing power as roughly $83,000 nationally.

Why would the nominal and adjusted winners disagree? +

High-cost metros often pay higher salaries, but not by enough to fully offset the higher cost of housing, goods, and services. When that happens, the location with the lower nominal wage actually offers more real purchasing power.

What is a location quotient? +

The location quotient measures how concentrated an occupation is in a given area versus the national average. A value of 2.0 means the occupation is twice as common there as nationally. It is a signal of what a metro specializes in.