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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Nursing Instructors And Teachers, Postsecondary Salary: Massachusetts vs California

Nursing Instructors And Teachers, Postsecondary earn a median of $80,140 in Massachusetts and $99,010 in California. That is a nominal gap of $18,870 (-19.1%), with California 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.

$80,140
Massachusetts median
$75,777 after COL
$99,010
California median
$89,424 after COL
-19.1%
Nominal gap
California leads
-15.3%
Adjusted gap
California leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, California pays $18,870 more per year than Massachusetts for nursing instructors and teachers, postsecondary, a gap of +19.1%.

After adjusting for cost of living, California still comes out ahead, with roughly $13,646 of extra purchasing power (+15.3% 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

Massachusetts

Median salary
$80,140
Mean salary
$90,830
Employment
2,860
Location quotient
1.63
Jobs per 1,000
0.8
COL-adjusted median
$75,777
Regional Price Parity
105.8%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Nursing Instructors And Teachers, Postsecondary page for Massachusetts →

Nursing Instructors And Teachers, Postsecondary

California

Median salary
$99,010
Mean salary
$101,770
Employment
6,120
Location quotient
0.70
Jobs per 1,000
0.3
COL-adjusted median
$89,424
Regional Price Parity
110.7%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Nursing Instructors And Teachers, Postsecondary page for California →

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 state specializes in.