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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Environmental Scientists And Specialists, Including Health Salary: St. Cloud, MN vs Monroe, MI

Environmental Scientists And Specialists, Including Health earn a median of $85,450 in St. Cloud, MN and $107,990 in Monroe, MI. That is a nominal gap of $22,540 (-20.9%), with Monroe, MI 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.

$85,450
St. Cloud, MN median
$97,510 after COL
$107,990
Monroe, MI median
$115,507 after COL
-20.9%
Nominal gap
Monroe, MI leads
-15.6%
Adjusted gap
Monroe, MI leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Monroe, MI pays $22,540 more per year than St. Cloud, MN for environmental scientists and specialists, including health, a gap of +20.9%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Monroe, MI still comes out ahead, with roughly $17,997 of extra purchasing power (+15.6% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for environmental scientists and specialists, including health in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Environmental Scientists And Specialists, Including Health

St. Cloud, MN

Median salary
$85,450
Mean salary
$86,110
Employment
40
Location quotient
0.64
Jobs per 1,000
0.4
COL-adjusted median
$97,510
Regional Price Parity
87.6%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Environmental Scientists And Specialists, Including Health page for St. Cloud, MN →

Environmental Scientists And Specialists, Including Health

Monroe, MI

Median salary
$107,990
Mean salary
$97,640
Employment
60
Location quotient
2.58
Jobs per 1,000
1.4
COL-adjusted median
$115,507
Regional Price Parity
93.5%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Environmental Scientists And Specialists, Including Health page for Monroe, MI →

Related pages

Keep digging into environmental scientists and specialists, including health 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.