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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Mining And Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers Salary: Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN vs Salt Lake City-Murray, UT

Mining And Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers earn a median of $97,190 in Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN and $115,270 in Salt Lake City-Murray, UT. That is a nominal gap of $18,080 (-15.7%), with Salt Lake City-Murray, UT 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.

$97,190
Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN median
$100,884 after COL
$115,270
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT median
$114,278 after COL
-15.7%
Nominal gap
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT leads
-11.7%
Adjusted gap
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Salt Lake City-Murray, UT pays $18,080 more per year than Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN for mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers, a gap of +15.7%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Salt Lake City-Murray, UT still comes out ahead, with roughly $13,394 of extra purchasing power (+11.7% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Mining And Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers

Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN

Median salary
$97,190
Mean salary
$102,190
Employment
30
Location quotient
0.63
Jobs per 1,000
0.0
COL-adjusted median
$100,884
Regional Price Parity
96.3%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Mining And Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers page for Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN →

Mining And Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers

Salt Lake City-Murray, UT

Median salary
$115,270
Mean salary
$115,970
Employment
170
Location quotient
4.83
Jobs per 1,000
0.2
COL-adjusted median
$114,278
Regional Price Parity
100.9%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Mining And Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers page for Salt Lake City-Murray, UT →

Related pages

Keep digging into mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers 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.