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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Mail Clerks And Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service Salary: Iowa vs Vermont

Mail Clerks And Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service earn a median of $36,980 in Iowa and $43,440 in Vermont. That is a nominal gap of $6,460 (-14.9%), with Vermont 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.

$36,980
Iowa median
$42,137 after COL
$43,440
Vermont median
$44,346 after COL
-14.9%
Nominal gap
Vermont leads
-5.0%
Adjusted gap
Vermont leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Vermont pays $6,460 more per year than Iowa for mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service, a gap of +14.9%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Vermont still comes out ahead, with roughly $2,209 of extra purchasing power (+5.0% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Mail Clerks And Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service

Iowa

Median salary
$36,980
Mean salary
$36,960
Employment
770
Location quotient
1.20
Jobs per 1,000
0.5
COL-adjusted median
$42,137
Regional Price Parity
87.8%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Mail Clerks And Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service page for Iowa →

Mail Clerks And Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service

Vermont

Median salary
$43,440
Mean salary
$43,370
Employment
N/A
Location quotient
N/A
Jobs per 1,000
N/A
COL-adjusted median
$44,346
Regional Price Parity
98.0%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Mail Clerks And Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service page for Vermont →

Related pages

Keep digging into mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service 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.