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

Extruding, Forming, Pressing, And Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders Salary: Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA vs Portland-South Portland, ME

Extruding, Forming, Pressing, And Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders earn a median of $49,130 in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA and $58,290 in Portland-South Portland, ME. That is a nominal gap of $9,160 (-15.7%), with Portland-South Portland, ME 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.

$49,130
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median
$46,604 after COL
$58,290
Portland-South Portland, ME median
$57,227 after COL
-15.7%
Nominal gap
Portland-South Portland, ME leads
-18.6%
Adjusted gap
Portland-South Portland, ME leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Portland-South Portland, ME pays $9,160 more per year than Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA for extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders, a gap of +15.7%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Portland-South Portland, ME still comes out ahead, with roughly $10,623 of extra purchasing power (+18.6% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

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

Extruding, Forming, Pressing, And Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA

Median salary
$49,130
Mean salary
$51,600
Employment
450
Location quotient
1.00
Jobs per 1,000
0.4
COL-adjusted median
$46,604
Regional Price Parity
105.4%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Extruding, Forming, Pressing, And Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders page for Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA →

Extruding, Forming, Pressing, And Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders

Portland-South Portland, ME

Median salary
$58,290
Mean salary
$55,160
Employment
100
Location quotient
0.96
Jobs per 1,000
0.4
COL-adjusted median
$57,227
Regional Price Parity
101.9%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Extruding, Forming, Pressing, And Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders page for Portland-South Portland, ME →

Related pages

Keep digging into extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders 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.