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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Foundry Mold And Coremakers Salary: Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA vs Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA

Foundry Mold And Coremakers earn a median of $60,650 in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA and $65,020 in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA. That is a nominal gap of $4,370 (-6.7%), with Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA 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.

$60,650
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA median
$54,574 after COL
$65,020
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median
$61,677 after COL
-6.7%
Nominal gap
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA leads
-11.5%
Adjusted gap
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA pays $4,370 more per year than Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA for foundry mold and coremakers, a gap of +6.7%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA still comes out ahead, with roughly $7,102 of extra purchasing power (+11.5% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

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

Foundry Mold And Coremakers

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

Median salary
$60,650
Mean salary
$53,470
Employment
90
Location quotient
0.51
Jobs per 1,000
0.0
COL-adjusted median
$54,574
Regional Price Parity
111.1%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Foundry Mold And Coremakers page for Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA →

Foundry Mold And Coremakers

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA

Median salary
$65,020
Mean salary
$63,790
Employment
200
Location quotient
2.03
Jobs per 1,000
0.2
COL-adjusted median
$61,677
Regional Price Parity
105.4%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Foundry Mold And Coremakers page for Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA →

Related pages

Keep digging into foundry mold and coremakers 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.