Economists Salary: District of Columbia vs Virginia
Economists earn a median of $167,590 in District of Columbia and $137,590 in Virginia. That is a nominal gap of $30,000 (+21.8%), with District of Columbia paying more before any cost-of-living adjustment.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025 estimates. Cost-of-living adjustment uses BEA Regional Price Parities, most recent release.
The story behind the numbers
On raw wages, District of Columbia pays $30,000 more per year than Virginia for economists, a gap of +21.8%.
After adjusting for cost of living, District of Columbia still comes out ahead, with roughly $16,404 of extra purchasing power (+12.1% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.
Full breakdown by location
Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for economists in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.
District of Columbia
- Median salary
- $167,590
- Mean salary
- $175,100
- Employment
- 3,000
- Location quotient
- 37.34
- Jobs per 1,000
- 4.3
- COL-adjusted median
- $152,492
- Regional Price Parity
- 109.9%
Exact state RPP match.
Virginia
- Median salary
- $137,590
- Mean salary
- $144,880
- Employment
- 950
- Location quotient
- 2.01
- Jobs per 1,000
- 0.2
- COL-adjusted median
- $136,088
- Regional Price Parity
- 101.1%
Exact state RPP match.
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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.