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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Licensed Practical And Licensed Vocational Nurses Salary: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA vs Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

Licensed Practical And Licensed Vocational Nurses earn a median of $76,290 in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA and $80,480 in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA. That is a nominal gap of $4,190 (-5.2%), with Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, 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.

$76,290
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA median
$67,177 after COL
$80,480
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA median
$72,418 after COL
-5.2%
Nominal gap
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA leads
-7.2%
Adjusted gap
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA pays $4,190 more per year than Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses, a gap of +5.2%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA still comes out ahead, with roughly $5,241 of extra purchasing power (+7.2% 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

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

Median salary
$76,290
Mean salary
$77,250
Employment
32,320
Location quotient
1.27
Jobs per 1,000
5.2
COL-adjusted median
$67,177
Regional Price Parity
113.6%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Licensed Practical And Licensed Vocational Nurses page for Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA →

Licensed Practical And Licensed Vocational Nurses

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

Median salary
$80,480
Mean salary
$82,960
Employment
3,500
Location quotient
0.41
Jobs per 1,000
1.7
COL-adjusted median
$72,418
Regional Price Parity
111.1%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Licensed Practical And Licensed Vocational Nurses page for Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA →

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 metro specializes in.