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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Construction Managers Salary: Madison, WI vs New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ

Construction Managers earn a median of $125,010 in Madison, WI and $138,000 in New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ. That is a nominal gap of $12,990 (-9.4%), with New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ 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.

$125,010
Madison, WI median
$128,496 after COL
$138,000
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ median
$122,598 after COL
-9.4%
Nominal gap
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ leads
+4.8%
Adjusted gap
Madison, WI leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ pays $12,990 more per year than Madison, WI for construction managers, a gap of +9.4%.

After adjusting for cost of living, the picture flips. Madison, WI actually offers more purchasing power, effectively paying $5,898 more in national-price-level terms (a +4.8% 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 construction managers in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Construction Managers

Madison, WI

Median salary
$125,010
Mean salary
$123,880
Employment
720
Location quotient
0.79
Jobs per 1,000
1.8
COL-adjusted median
$128,496
Regional Price Parity
97.3%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Construction Managers page for Madison, WI →

Construction Managers

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ

Median salary
$138,000
Mean salary
$152,380
Employment
12,150
Location quotient
0.57
Jobs per 1,000
1.3
COL-adjusted median
$122,598
Regional Price Parity
112.6%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Construction Managers page for New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ →

Related pages

Keep digging into construction managers 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.