Skip to content

An independent salary reference. Not affiliated with BLS or any U.S. government agency.

Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Mental Health And Substance Abuse Social Workers Salary: York-Hanover, PA vs Vallejo, CA

Mental Health And Substance Abuse Social Workers earn a median of $44,500 in York-Hanover, PA and $98,680 in Vallejo, CA. That is a nominal gap of $54,180 (-54.9%), with Vallejo, CA 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.

$44,500
York-Hanover, PA median
$46,354 after COL
$98,680
Vallejo, CA median
$90,967 after COL
-54.9%
Nominal gap
Vallejo, CA leads
-49.0%
Adjusted gap
Vallejo, CA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Vallejo, CA pays $54,180 more per year than York-Hanover, PA for mental health and substance abuse social workers, a gap of +54.9%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Vallejo, CA still comes out ahead, with roughly $44,613 of extra purchasing power (+49.0% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for mental health and substance abuse social workers in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Mental Health And Substance Abuse Social Workers

York-Hanover, PA

Median salary
$44,500
Mean salary
$50,170
Employment
100
Location quotient
0.67
Jobs per 1,000
0.5
COL-adjusted median
$46,354
Regional Price Parity
96.0%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Mental Health And Substance Abuse Social Workers page for York-Hanover, PA →

Mental Health And Substance Abuse Social Workers

Vallejo, CA

Median salary
$98,680
Mean salary
$99,430
Employment
100
Location quotient
0.89
Jobs per 1,000
0.7
COL-adjusted median
$90,967
Regional Price Parity
108.5%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Mental Health And Substance Abuse Social Workers page for Vallejo, CA →

Related pages

Keep digging into mental health and substance abuse social workers 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.