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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, And Ambulance Salary: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI vs Longview-Kelso, WA

Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, And Ambulance earn a median of $57,290 in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI and $59,860 in Longview-Kelso, WA. That is a nominal gap of $2,570 (-4.3%), with Longview-Kelso, WA 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.

$57,290
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI median
$54,655 after COL
$59,860
Longview-Kelso, WA median
$61,367 after COL
-4.3%
Nominal gap
Longview-Kelso, WA leads
-10.9%
Adjusted gap
Longview-Kelso, WA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Longview-Kelso, WA pays $2,570 more per year than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI for dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance, a gap of +4.3%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Longview-Kelso, WA still comes out ahead, with roughly $6,712 of extra purchasing power (+10.9% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, And Ambulance

Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI

Median salary
$57,290
Mean salary
$58,310
Employment
1,930
Location quotient
0.73
Jobs per 1,000
1.0
COL-adjusted median
$54,655
Regional Price Parity
104.8%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, And Ambulance page for Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI →

Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, And Ambulance

Longview-Kelso, WA

Median salary
$59,860
Mean salary
$63,590
Employment
50
Location quotient
0.97
Jobs per 1,000
1.3
COL-adjusted median
$61,367
Regional Price Parity
97.5%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, And Ambulance page for Longview-Kelso, WA →

Related pages

Keep digging into dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance 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.