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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

General Internal Medicine Physicians Salary: Kalamazoo-Portage, MI vs Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN

General Internal Medicine Physicians earn a median of $67,820 in Kalamazoo-Portage, MI and $234,440 in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN. That is a nominal gap of $166,620 (-71.1%), with Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN 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.

$67,820
Kalamazoo-Portage, MI median
$71,510 after COL
$234,440
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN median
$226,304 after COL
-71.1%
Nominal gap
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN leads
-68.4%
Adjusted gap
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN pays $166,620 more per year than Kalamazoo-Portage, MI for general internal medicine physicians, a gap of +71.1%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN still comes out ahead, with roughly $154,794 of extra purchasing power (+68.4% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for general internal medicine physicians in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

General Internal Medicine Physicians

Kalamazoo-Portage, MI

Median salary
$67,820
Mean salary
$204,590
Employment
N/A
Location quotient
N/A
Jobs per 1,000
N/A
COL-adjusted median
$71,510
Regional Price Parity
94.8%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full General Internal Medicine Physicians page for Kalamazoo-Portage, MI →

General Internal Medicine Physicians

Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN

Median salary
$234,440
Mean salary
$255,530
Employment
1,420
Location quotient
0.74
Jobs per 1,000
0.3
COL-adjusted median
$226,304
Regional Price Parity
103.6%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full General Internal Medicine Physicians page for Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN →

Related pages

Keep digging into general internal medicine physicians 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.