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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Nursing Instructors And Teachers, Postsecondary Salary: Madison, WI vs Visalia, CA

Nursing Instructors And Teachers, Postsecondary earn a median of $82,810 in Madison, WI and $139,610 in Visalia, CA. That is a nominal gap of $56,800 (-40.7%), with Visalia, 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.

$82,810
Madison, WI median
$85,119 after COL
$139,610
Visalia, CA median
$139,855 after COL
-40.7%
Nominal gap
Visalia, CA leads
-39.1%
Adjusted gap
Visalia, CA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Visalia, CA pays $56,800 more per year than Madison, WI for nursing instructors and teachers, postsecondary, a gap of +40.7%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Visalia, CA still comes out ahead, with roughly $54,735 of extra purchasing power (+39.1% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for nursing instructors and teachers, postsecondary in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Nursing Instructors And Teachers, Postsecondary

Madison, WI

Median salary
$82,810
Mean salary
$89,210
Employment
190
Location quotient
0.95
Jobs per 1,000
0.5
COL-adjusted median
$85,119
Regional Price Parity
97.3%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Nursing Instructors And Teachers, Postsecondary page for Madison, WI →

Nursing Instructors And Teachers, Postsecondary

Visalia, CA

Median salary
$139,610
Mean salary
$138,780
Employment
50
Location quotient
0.60
Jobs per 1,000
0.3
COL-adjusted median
$139,855
Regional Price Parity
99.8%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Nursing Instructors And Teachers, Postsecondary page for Visalia, CA →

Related pages

Keep digging into nursing instructors and teachers, postsecondary 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.