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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers Salary: Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA vs Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX

Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers earn a median of $76,460 in Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA and $80,100 in Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX. That is a nominal gap of $3,640 (-4.5%), with Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX 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.

$76,460
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA median
$89,844 after COL
$80,100
Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX median
$88,955 after COL
-4.5%
Nominal gap
Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX leads
+1.0%
Adjusted gap
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX pays $3,640 more per year than Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA for pump operators, except wellhead pumpers, a gap of +4.5%.

After adjusting for cost of living, the picture flips. Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA actually offers more purchasing power, effectively paying $890 more in national-price-level terms (a +1.0% real gap). The higher nominal wage in the other location is eaten up by higher local prices.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for pump operators, except wellhead pumpers in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers

Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA

Median salary
$76,460
Mean salary
$63,110
Employment
60
Location quotient
9.35
Jobs per 1,000
0.8
COL-adjusted median
$89,844
Regional Price Parity
85.1%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers page for Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA →

Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers

Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX

Median salary
$80,100
Mean salary
$77,440
Employment
110
Location quotient
8.76
Jobs per 1,000
0.7
COL-adjusted median
$88,955
Regional Price Parity
90.0%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers page for Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX →

Related pages

Keep digging into pump operators, except wellhead pumpers 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.