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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Butchers And Meat Cutters Salary: Portland-South Portland, ME vs Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

Butchers And Meat Cutters earn a median of $49,100 in Portland-South Portland, ME and $57,870 in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA. That is a nominal gap of $8,770 (-15.2%), with Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 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.

$49,100
Portland-South Portland, ME median
$48,204 after COL
$57,870
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA median
$52,073 after COL
-15.2%
Nominal gap
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA leads
-7.4%
Adjusted gap
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA pays $8,770 more per year than Portland-South Portland, ME for butchers and meat cutters, a gap of +15.2%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA still comes out ahead, with roughly $3,868 of extra purchasing power (+7.4% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for butchers and meat cutters in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Butchers And Meat Cutters

Portland-South Portland, ME

Median salary
$49,100
Mean salary
$48,420
Employment
200
Location quotient
0.78
Jobs per 1,000
0.7
COL-adjusted median
$48,204
Regional Price Parity
101.9%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Butchers And Meat Cutters page for Portland-South Portland, ME →

Butchers And Meat Cutters

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

Median salary
$57,870
Mean salary
$53,440
Employment
1,300
Location quotient
0.69
Jobs per 1,000
0.6
COL-adjusted median
$52,073
Regional Price Parity
111.1%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Butchers And Meat Cutters page for Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA →

Related pages

Keep digging into butchers and meat cutters 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.