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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Civil Engineering Technologists And Technicians Salary: St. Cloud, MN vs Napa, CA

Civil Engineering Technologists And Technicians earn a median of $83,220 in St. Cloud, MN and $95,680 in Napa, CA. That is a nominal gap of $12,460 (-13.0%), with Napa, CA 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.

$83,220
St. Cloud, MN median
$94,965 after COL
$95,680
Napa, CA median
$85,008 after COL
-13.0%
Nominal gap
Napa, CA leads
+11.7%
Adjusted gap
St. Cloud, MN leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Napa, CA pays $12,460 more per year than St. Cloud, MN for civil engineering technologists and technicians, a gap of +13.0%.

After adjusting for cost of living, the picture flips. St. Cloud, MN actually offers more purchasing power, effectively paying $9,957 more in national-price-level terms (a +11.7% real gap). The higher nominal wage in the other location is eaten up by higher local prices.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for civil engineering technologists and technicians in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Civil Engineering Technologists And Technicians

St. Cloud, MN

Median salary
$83,220
Mean salary
$79,370
Employment
40
Location quotient
0.92
Jobs per 1,000
0.4
COL-adjusted median
$94,965
Regional Price Parity
87.6%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Civil Engineering Technologists And Technicians page for St. Cloud, MN →

Civil Engineering Technologists And Technicians

Napa, CA

Median salary
$95,680
Mean salary
$95,570
Employment
40
Location quotient
1.23
Jobs per 1,000
0.5
COL-adjusted median
$85,008
Regional Price Parity
112.6%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Civil Engineering Technologists And Technicians page for Napa, CA →

Related pages

Keep digging into civil engineering technologists and technicians 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.