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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Earth Drillers, Except Oil And Gas Salary: Wichita, KS vs New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ

Earth Drillers, Except Oil And Gas earn a median of $51,880 in Wichita, KS and $78,340 in New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ. That is a nominal gap of $26,460 (-33.8%), 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.

$51,880
Wichita, KS median
$58,328 after COL
$78,340
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ median
$69,597 after COL
-33.8%
Nominal gap
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ leads
-16.2%
Adjusted gap
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ pays $26,460 more per year than Wichita, KS for earth drillers, except oil and gas, a gap of +33.8%.

After adjusting for cost of living, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ still comes out ahead, with roughly $11,269 of extra purchasing power (+16.2% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for earth drillers, except oil and gas in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Earth Drillers, Except Oil And Gas

Wichita, KS

Median salary
$51,880
Mean salary
$54,760
Employment
40
Location quotient
1.12
Jobs per 1,000
0.1
COL-adjusted median
$58,328
Regional Price Parity
88.9%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Earth Drillers, Except Oil And Gas page for Wichita, KS →

Earth Drillers, Except Oil And Gas

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ

Median salary
$78,340
Mean salary
$80,340
Employment
550
Location quotient
0.52
Jobs per 1,000
0.1
COL-adjusted median
$69,597
Regional Price Parity
112.6%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Earth Drillers, Except Oil And Gas page for New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ →

Related pages

Keep digging into earth drillers, except oil and gas 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.