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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Industrial Truck And Tractor Operators Salary: Tucson, AZ vs Albuquerque, NM

Industrial Truck And Tractor Operators earn a median of $44,250 in Tucson, AZ and $60,960 in Albuquerque, NM. That is a nominal gap of $16,710 (-27.4%), with Albuquerque, NM 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.

$44,250
Tucson, AZ median
$45,668 after COL
$60,960
Albuquerque, NM median
$63,802 after COL
-27.4%
Nominal gap
Albuquerque, NM leads
-28.4%
Adjusted gap
Albuquerque, NM leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Albuquerque, NM pays $16,710 more per year than Tucson, AZ for industrial truck and tractor operators, a gap of +27.4%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Albuquerque, NM still comes out ahead, with roughly $18,134 of extra purchasing power (+28.4% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for industrial truck and tractor operators in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Industrial Truck And Tractor Operators

Tucson, AZ

Median salary
$44,250
Mean salary
$45,260
Employment
1,520
Location quotient
0.75
Jobs per 1,000
3.9
COL-adjusted median
$45,668
Regional Price Parity
96.9%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Industrial Truck And Tractor Operators page for Tucson, AZ →

Industrial Truck And Tractor Operators

Albuquerque, NM

Median salary
$60,960
Mean salary
$55,840
Employment
1,720
Location quotient
0.82
Jobs per 1,000
4.3
COL-adjusted median
$63,802
Regional Price Parity
95.5%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Industrial Truck And Tractor Operators page for Albuquerque, NM →

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.