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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Captains, Mates, And Pilots Of Water Vessels Salary: Paducah, KY-IL vs Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX

Captains, Mates, And Pilots Of Water Vessels earn a median of $88,600 in Paducah, KY-IL and $116,620 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX. That is a nominal gap of $28,020 (-24.0%), with Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX 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.

$88,600
Paducah, KY-IL median
$102,923 after COL
$116,620
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX median
$118,241 after COL
-24.0%
Nominal gap
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX leads
-13.0%
Adjusted gap
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX pays $28,020 more per year than Paducah, KY-IL for captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels, a gap of +24.0%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX still comes out ahead, with roughly $15,318 of extra purchasing power (+13.0% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Captains, Mates, And Pilots Of Water Vessels

Paducah, KY-IL

Median salary
$88,600
Mean salary
$108,820
Employment
1,080
Location quotient
92.59
Jobs per 1,000
21.3
COL-adjusted median
$102,923
Regional Price Parity
86.1%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Captains, Mates, And Pilots Of Water Vessels page for Paducah, KY-IL →

Captains, Mates, And Pilots Of Water Vessels

Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX

Median salary
$116,620
Mean salary
$117,340
Employment
2,850
Location quotient
3.83
Jobs per 1,000
0.9
COL-adjusted median
$118,241
Regional Price Parity
98.6%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Captains, Mates, And Pilots Of Water Vessels page for Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX →

Related pages

Keep digging into captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels 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.