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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Medical Secretaries And Administrative Assistants Salary: Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL vs Bellingham, WA

Medical Secretaries And Administrative Assistants earn a median of $39,370 in Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL and $57,360 in Bellingham, WA. That is a nominal gap of $17,990 (-31.4%), with Bellingham, 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.

$39,370
Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL median
$38,466 after COL
$57,360
Bellingham, WA median
$55,509 after COL
-31.4%
Nominal gap
Bellingham, WA leads
-30.7%
Adjusted gap
Bellingham, WA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Bellingham, WA pays $17,990 more per year than Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL for medical secretaries and administrative assistants, a gap of +31.4%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Bellingham, WA still comes out ahead, with roughly $17,043 of extra purchasing power (+30.7% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for medical secretaries and administrative assistants in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Medical Secretaries And Administrative Assistants

Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL

Median salary
$39,370
Mean salary
$41,480
Employment
1,890
Location quotient
1.17
Jobs per 1,000
6.3
COL-adjusted median
$38,466
Regional Price Parity
102.3%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Medical Secretaries And Administrative Assistants page for Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL →

Medical Secretaries And Administrative Assistants

Bellingham, WA

Median salary
$57,360
Mean salary
$55,450
Employment
230
Location quotient
0.47
Jobs per 1,000
2.5
COL-adjusted median
$55,509
Regional Price Parity
103.3%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Medical Secretaries And Administrative Assistants page for Bellingham, WA →

Related pages

Keep digging into medical secretaries and administrative assistants 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.