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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Miscellaneous Assemblers And Fabricators Salary: Columbia, MO vs St. Joseph, MO-KS

Miscellaneous Assemblers And Fabricators earn a median of $41,690 in Columbia, MO and $52,690 in St. Joseph, MO-KS. That is a nominal gap of $11,000 (-20.9%), with St. Joseph, MO-KS 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.

$41,690
Columbia, MO median
$46,613 after COL
$52,690
St. Joseph, MO-KS median
$60,997 after COL
-20.9%
Nominal gap
St. Joseph, MO-KS leads
-23.6%
Adjusted gap
St. Joseph, MO-KS leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, St. Joseph, MO-KS pays $11,000 more per year than Columbia, MO for miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators, a gap of +20.9%.

After adjusting for cost of living, St. Joseph, MO-KS still comes out ahead, with roughly $14,383 of extra purchasing power (+23.6% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Miscellaneous Assemblers And Fabricators

Columbia, MO

Median salary
$41,690
Mean salary
$42,210
Employment
620
Location quotient
0.62
Jobs per 1,000
5.9
COL-adjusted median
$46,613
Regional Price Parity
89.4%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Miscellaneous Assemblers And Fabricators page for Columbia, MO →

Miscellaneous Assemblers And Fabricators

St. Joseph, MO-KS

Median salary
$52,690
Mean salary
$50,790
Employment
1,080
Location quotient
2.12
Jobs per 1,000
20.1
COL-adjusted median
$60,997
Regional Price Parity
86.4%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Miscellaneous Assemblers And Fabricators page for St. Joseph, MO-KS →

Related pages

Keep digging into miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators 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.