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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Food Cooking Machine Operators And Tenders Salary: New Mexico vs Michigan

Food Cooking Machine Operators And Tenders earn a median of $47,250 in New Mexico and $48,070 in Michigan. That is a nominal gap of $820 (-1.7%), with Michigan 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.

$47,250
New Mexico median
$51,241 after COL
$48,070
Michigan median
$49,960 after COL
-1.7%
Nominal gap
Michigan leads
+2.6%
Adjusted gap
New Mexico leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Michigan pays $820 more per year than New Mexico for food cooking machine operators and tenders, a gap of +1.7%.

After adjusting for cost of living, the picture flips. New Mexico actually offers more purchasing power, effectively paying $1,281 more in national-price-level terms (a +2.6% 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 food cooking machine operators and tenders in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Food Cooking Machine Operators And Tenders

New Mexico

Median salary
$47,250
Mean salary
$45,050
Employment
290
Location quotient
1.90
Jobs per 1,000
0.3
COL-adjusted median
$51,241
Regional Price Parity
92.2%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Food Cooking Machine Operators And Tenders page for New Mexico →

Food Cooking Machine Operators And Tenders

Michigan

Median salary
$48,070
Mean salary
$48,160
Employment
720
Location quotient
0.92
Jobs per 1,000
0.2
COL-adjusted median
$49,960
Regional Price Parity
96.2%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Food Cooking Machine Operators And Tenders page for Michigan →

Related pages

Keep digging into food cooking machine 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 state specializes in.