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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Floor Sanders And Finishers Salary: St. Louis, MO-IL vs Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

Floor Sanders And Finishers earn a median of $59,920 in St. Louis, MO-IL and $52,240 in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV. That is a nominal gap of $7,680 (+14.7%), with St. Louis, MO-IL 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.

$59,920
St. Louis, MO-IL median
$63,015 after COL
$52,240
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV median
$47,978 after COL
+14.7%
Nominal gap
St. Louis, MO-IL leads
+31.3%
Adjusted gap
St. Louis, MO-IL leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, St. Louis, MO-IL pays $7,680 more per year than Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV for floor sanders and finishers, a gap of +14.7%.

After adjusting for cost of living, St. Louis, MO-IL still comes out ahead, with roughly $15,038 of extra purchasing power (+31.3% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for floor sanders and finishers in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Floor Sanders And Finishers

St. Louis, MO-IL

Median salary
$59,920
Mean salary
$59,150
Employment
30
Location quotient
0.86
Jobs per 1,000
0.0
COL-adjusted median
$63,015
Regional Price Parity
95.1%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Floor Sanders And Finishers page for St. Louis, MO-IL →

Floor Sanders And Finishers

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

Median salary
$52,240
Mean salary
$50,530
Employment
190
Location quotient
2.23
Jobs per 1,000
0.1
COL-adjusted median
$47,978
Regional Price Parity
108.9%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Floor Sanders And Finishers page for Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV →

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.