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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders Salary: Kansas City, MO-KS vs Longview-Kelso, WA

Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders earn a median of $47,220 in Kansas City, MO-KS and $66,600 in Longview-Kelso, WA. That is a nominal gap of $19,380 (-29.1%), with Longview-Kelso, WA 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.

$47,220
Kansas City, MO-KS median
$51,025 after COL
$66,600
Longview-Kelso, WA median
$68,276 after COL
-29.1%
Nominal gap
Longview-Kelso, WA leads
-25.3%
Adjusted gap
Longview-Kelso, WA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Longview-Kelso, WA pays $19,380 more per year than Kansas City, MO-KS for paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders, a gap of +29.1%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Longview-Kelso, WA still comes out ahead, with roughly $17,251 of extra purchasing power (+25.3% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders

Kansas City, MO-KS

Median salary
$47,220
Mean salary
$48,020
Employment
790
Location quotient
1.15
Jobs per 1,000
0.7
COL-adjusted median
$51,025
Regional Price Parity
92.5%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders page for Kansas City, MO-KS →

Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders

Longview-Kelso, WA

Median salary
$66,600
Mean salary
$67,380
Employment
630
Location quotient
24.56
Jobs per 1,000
15.4
COL-adjusted median
$68,276
Regional Price Parity
97.5%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders page for Longview-Kelso, WA →

Related pages

Keep digging into paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders 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.