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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders Salary: New Jersey vs Oklahoma

Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders earn a median of $46,200 in New Jersey and $61,750 in Oklahoma. That is a nominal gap of $15,550 (-25.2%), with Oklahoma 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.

$46,200
New Jersey median
$42,461 after COL
$61,750
Oklahoma median
$70,296 after COL
-25.2%
Nominal gap
Oklahoma leads
-39.6%
Adjusted gap
Oklahoma leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Oklahoma pays $15,550 more per year than New Jersey for paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders, a gap of +25.2%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Oklahoma still comes out ahead, with roughly $27,835 of extra purchasing power (+39.6% 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

New Jersey

Median salary
$46,200
Mean salary
$46,490
Employment
2,570
Location quotient
0.96
Jobs per 1,000
0.6
COL-adjusted median
$42,461
Regional Price Parity
108.8%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders page for New Jersey →

Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders

Oklahoma

Median salary
$61,750
Mean salary
$56,300
Employment
1,440
Location quotient
1.36
Jobs per 1,000
0.9
COL-adjusted median
$70,296
Regional Price Parity
87.8%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders page for Oklahoma →

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 state specializes in.