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Painters, Construction And Maintenance Salary: Illinois vs Alaska

Painters, Construction And Maintenance earn a median of $61,260 in Illinois and $60,980 in Alaska. That is a nominal gap of $280 (+0.5%), with Illinois paying more before any cost-of-living adjustment.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025 estimates. Cost-of-living adjustment uses BEA Regional Price Parities, most recent release.

$61,260
Illinois median
$61,286 after COL
$60,980
Alaska median
$59,575 after COL
+0.5%
Nominal gap
Illinois leads
+2.9%
Adjusted gap
Illinois leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Illinois pays $280 more per year than Alaska for painters, construction and maintenance, a gap of +0.5%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Illinois still comes out ahead, with roughly $1,711 of extra purchasing power (+2.9% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

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

Painters, Construction And Maintenance

Illinois

Median salary
$61,260
Mean salary
$69,630
Employment
6,820
Location quotient
0.77
Jobs per 1,000
1.1
COL-adjusted median
$61,286
Regional Price Parity
100.0%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Painters, Construction And Maintenance page for Illinois →

Painters, Construction And Maintenance

Alaska

Median salary
$60,980
Mean salary
$64,220
Employment
440
Location quotient
0.94
Jobs per 1,000
1.4
COL-adjusted median
$59,575
Regional Price Parity
102.4%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Painters, Construction And Maintenance page for Alaska →

Related pages

Keep digging into painters, construction and maintenance 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.