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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Dining Room And Cafeteria Attendants And Bartender Helpers Salary: Iowa vs Vermont

Dining Room And Cafeteria Attendants And Bartender Helpers earn a median of $26,710 in Iowa and $36,920 in Vermont. That is a nominal gap of $10,210 (-27.7%), with Vermont 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.

$26,710
Iowa median
$30,435 after COL
$36,920
Vermont median
$37,690 after COL
-27.7%
Nominal gap
Vermont leads
-19.2%
Adjusted gap
Vermont leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Vermont pays $10,210 more per year than Iowa for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers, a gap of +27.7%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Vermont still comes out ahead, with roughly $7,255 of extra purchasing power (+19.2% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Dining Room And Cafeteria Attendants And Bartender Helpers

Iowa

Median salary
$26,710
Mean salary
$26,600
Employment
3,020
Location quotient
0.57
Jobs per 1,000
1.9
COL-adjusted median
$30,435
Regional Price Parity
87.8%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Dining Room And Cafeteria Attendants And Bartender Helpers page for Iowa →

Dining Room And Cafeteria Attendants And Bartender Helpers

Vermont

Median salary
$36,920
Mean salary
$39,690
Employment
650
Location quotient
0.63
Jobs per 1,000
2.1
COL-adjusted median
$37,690
Regional Price Parity
98.0%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Dining Room And Cafeteria Attendants And Bartender Helpers page for Vermont →

Related pages

Keep digging into dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers 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 state specializes in.