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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Licensed Practical And Licensed Vocational Nurses Salary: Alabama vs Massachusetts

Licensed Practical And Licensed Vocational Nurses earn a median of $50,100 in Alabama and $76,560 in Massachusetts. That is a nominal gap of $26,460 (-34.6%), with Massachusetts 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.

$50,100
Alabama median
$56,404 after COL
$76,560
Massachusetts median
$72,392 after COL
-34.6%
Nominal gap
Massachusetts leads
-22.1%
Adjusted gap
Massachusetts leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Massachusetts pays $26,460 more per year than Alabama for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses, a gap of +34.6%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Massachusetts still comes out ahead, with roughly $15,988 of extra purchasing power (+22.1% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Licensed Practical And Licensed Vocational Nurses

Alabama

Median salary
$50,100
Mean salary
$50,760
Employment
10,840
Location quotient
1.26
Jobs per 1,000
5.2
COL-adjusted median
$56,404
Regional Price Parity
88.8%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Licensed Practical And Licensed Vocational Nurses page for Alabama →

Licensed Practical And Licensed Vocational Nurses

Massachusetts

Median salary
$76,560
Mean salary
$76,400
Employment
15,210
Location quotient
1.02
Jobs per 1,000
4.2
COL-adjusted median
$72,392
Regional Price Parity
105.8%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Licensed Practical And Licensed Vocational Nurses page for Massachusetts →

Related pages

Keep digging into licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses 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.