Skip to content

An independent salary reference. Not affiliated with BLS or any U.S. government agency.

Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, And Blasters Salary: Joplin, MO-KS vs Urban Honolulu, HI

Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, And Blasters earn a median of $64,650 in Joplin, MO-KS and $77,460 in Urban Honolulu, HI. That is a nominal gap of $12,810 (-16.5%), with Urban Honolulu, HI 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.

$64,650
Joplin, MO-KS median
$75,422 after COL
$77,460
Urban Honolulu, HI median
$69,808 after COL
-16.5%
Nominal gap
Urban Honolulu, HI leads
+8.0%
Adjusted gap
Joplin, MO-KS leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Urban Honolulu, HI pays $12,810 more per year than Joplin, MO-KS for explosives workers, ordnance handling experts, and blasters, a gap of +16.5%.

After adjusting for cost of living, the picture flips. Joplin, MO-KS actually offers more purchasing power, effectively paying $5,613 more in national-price-level terms (a +8.0% real gap). The higher nominal wage in the other location is eaten up by higher local prices.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for explosives workers, ordnance handling experts, and blasters in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, And Blasters

Joplin, MO-KS

Median salary
$64,650
Mean salary
$66,370
Employment
30
Location quotient
10.32
Jobs per 1,000
0.4
COL-adjusted median
$75,422
Regional Price Parity
85.7%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, And Blasters page for Joplin, MO-KS →

Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, And Blasters

Urban Honolulu, HI

Median salary
$77,460
Mean salary
$78,650
Employment
70
Location quotient
4.22
Jobs per 1,000
0.2
COL-adjusted median
$69,808
Regional Price Parity
111.0%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, And Blasters page for Urban Honolulu, HI →

Related pages

Keep digging into explosives workers, ordnance handling experts, and blasters 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.