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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Extruding And Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders, Metal And Plastic Salary: Wichita, KS vs Burlington-South Burlington, VT

Extruding And Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders, Metal And Plastic earn a median of $35,400 in Wichita, KS and $59,480 in Burlington-South Burlington, VT. That is a nominal gap of $24,080 (-40.5%), with Burlington-South Burlington, VT 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.

$35,400
Wichita, KS median
$39,799 after COL
$59,480
Burlington-South Burlington, VT median
$58,921 after COL
-40.5%
Nominal gap
Burlington-South Burlington, VT leads
-32.5%
Adjusted gap
Burlington-South Burlington, VT leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Burlington-South Burlington, VT pays $24,080 more per year than Wichita, KS for extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, a gap of +40.5%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Burlington-South Burlington, VT still comes out ahead, with roughly $19,121 of extra purchasing power (+32.5% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Extruding And Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders, Metal And Plastic

Wichita, KS

Median salary
$35,400
Mean salary
$37,380
Employment
190
Location quotient
1.48
Jobs per 1,000
0.6
COL-adjusted median
$39,799
Regional Price Parity
88.9%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Extruding And Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders, Metal And Plastic page for Wichita, KS →

Extruding And Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders, Metal And Plastic

Burlington-South Burlington, VT

Median salary
$59,480
Mean salary
$57,550
Employment
70
Location quotient
1.28
Jobs per 1,000
0.5
COL-adjusted median
$58,921
Regional Price Parity
100.9%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Extruding And Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders, Metal And Plastic page for Burlington-South Burlington, VT →

Related pages

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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 metro specializes in.