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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Foreign Language And Literature Teachers, Postsecondary Salary: Pennsylvania vs Rhode Island

Foreign Language And Literature Teachers, Postsecondary earn a median of $75,980 in Pennsylvania and $88,340 in Rhode Island. That is a nominal gap of $12,360 (-14.0%), with Rhode Island 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.

$75,980
Pennsylvania median
$77,871 after COL
$88,340
Rhode Island median
$86,371 after COL
-14.0%
Nominal gap
Rhode Island leads
-9.8%
Adjusted gap
Rhode Island leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Rhode Island pays $12,360 more per year than Pennsylvania for foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary, a gap of +14.0%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Rhode Island still comes out ahead, with roughly $8,500 of extra purchasing power (+9.8% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Foreign Language And Literature Teachers, Postsecondary

Pennsylvania

Median salary
$75,980
Mean salary
$80,220
Employment
1,260
Location quotient
1.53
Jobs per 1,000
0.2
COL-adjusted median
$77,871
Regional Price Parity
97.6%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Foreign Language And Literature Teachers, Postsecondary page for Pennsylvania →

Foreign Language And Literature Teachers, Postsecondary

Rhode Island

Median salary
$88,340
Mean salary
$96,500
Employment
90
Location quotient
1.37
Jobs per 1,000
0.2
COL-adjusted median
$86,371
Regional Price Parity
102.3%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Foreign Language And Literature Teachers, Postsecondary page for Rhode Island →

Related pages

Keep digging into foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary 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.