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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Child, Family, And School Social Workers Salary: Chattanooga, TN-GA vs Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT

Child, Family, And School Social Workers earn a median of $52,480 in Chattanooga, TN-GA and $78,950 in Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT. That is a nominal gap of $26,470 (-33.5%), with Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT 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.

$52,480
Chattanooga, TN-GA median
$57,378 after COL
$78,950
Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT median
$78,600 after COL
-33.5%
Nominal gap
Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT leads
-27.0%
Adjusted gap
Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT pays $26,470 more per year than Chattanooga, TN-GA for child, family, and school social workers, a gap of +33.5%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT still comes out ahead, with roughly $21,222 of extra purchasing power (+27.0% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for child, family, and school social workers in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Child, Family, And School Social Workers

Chattanooga, TN-GA

Median salary
$52,480
Mean salary
$54,880
Employment
550
Location quotient
0.82
Jobs per 1,000
2.0
COL-adjusted median
$57,378
Regional Price Parity
91.5%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Child, Family, And School Social Workers page for Chattanooga, TN-GA →

Child, Family, And School Social Workers

Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT

Median salary
$78,950
Mean salary
$78,510
Employment
350
Location quotient
1.15
Jobs per 1,000
2.8
COL-adjusted median
$78,600
Regional Price Parity
100.4%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Child, Family, And School Social Workers page for Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT →

Related pages

Keep digging into child, family, and school social workers 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.