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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Metal-Refining Furnace Operators And Tenders Salary: Arkansas vs New Jersey

Metal-Refining Furnace Operators And Tenders earn a median of $40,220 in Arkansas and $62,130 in New Jersey. That is a nominal gap of $21,910 (-35.3%), with New Jersey 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.

$40,220
Arkansas median
$46,263 after COL
$62,130
New Jersey median
$57,102 after COL
-35.3%
Nominal gap
New Jersey leads
-19.0%
Adjusted gap
New Jersey leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, New Jersey pays $21,910 more per year than Arkansas for metal-refining furnace operators and tenders, a gap of +35.3%.

After adjusting for cost of living, New Jersey still comes out ahead, with roughly $10,839 of extra purchasing power (+19.0% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for metal-refining furnace operators and tenders in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Metal-Refining Furnace Operators And Tenders

Arkansas

Median salary
$40,220
Mean salary
$45,140
Employment
430
Location quotient
2.51
Jobs per 1,000
0.3
COL-adjusted median
$46,263
Regional Price Parity
86.9%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Metal-Refining Furnace Operators And Tenders page for Arkansas →

Metal-Refining Furnace Operators And Tenders

New Jersey

Median salary
$62,130
Mean salary
$63,880
Employment
50
Location quotient
0.09
Jobs per 1,000
0.0
COL-adjusted median
$57,102
Regional Price Parity
108.8%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Metal-Refining Furnace Operators And Tenders page for New Jersey →

Related pages

Keep digging into metal-refining furnace operators and tenders 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.