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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Education Administrators, Kindergarten Through Secondary Salary: Providence-Warwick, RI-MA vs Kennewick-Richland, WA

Education Administrators, Kindergarten Through Secondary earn a median of $119,510 in Providence-Warwick, RI-MA and $161,370 in Kennewick-Richland, WA. That is a nominal gap of $41,860 (-25.9%), with Kennewick-Richland, 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.

$119,510
Providence-Warwick, RI-MA median
$117,428 after COL
$161,370
Kennewick-Richland, WA median
$161,243 after COL
-25.9%
Nominal gap
Kennewick-Richland, WA leads
-27.2%
Adjusted gap
Kennewick-Richland, WA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Kennewick-Richland, WA pays $41,860 more per year than Providence-Warwick, RI-MA for education administrators, kindergarten through secondary, a gap of +25.9%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Kennewick-Richland, WA still comes out ahead, with roughly $43,815 of extra purchasing power (+27.2% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for education administrators, kindergarten through secondary in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Education Administrators, Kindergarten Through Secondary

Providence-Warwick, RI-MA

Median salary
$119,510
Mean salary
$118,460
Employment
1,900
Location quotient
1.30
Jobs per 1,000
2.7
COL-adjusted median
$117,428
Regional Price Parity
101.8%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Education Administrators, Kindergarten Through Secondary page for Providence-Warwick, RI-MA →

Education Administrators, Kindergarten Through Secondary

Kennewick-Richland, WA

Median salary
$161,370
Mean salary
$153,450
Employment
290
Location quotient
1.10
Jobs per 1,000
2.3
COL-adjusted median
$161,243
Regional Price Parity
100.1%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Education Administrators, Kindergarten Through Secondary page for Kennewick-Richland, WA →

Related pages

Keep digging into education administrators, kindergarten through secondary 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.