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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers Salary: Monroe, LA vs Salt Lake City-Murray, UT

Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers earn a median of $73,370 in Monroe, LA and $77,390 in Salt Lake City-Murray, UT. That is a nominal gap of $4,020 (-5.2%), with Salt Lake City-Murray, UT 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.

$73,370
Monroe, LA median
$87,766 after COL
$77,390
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT median
$76,724 after COL
-5.2%
Nominal gap
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT leads
+14.4%
Adjusted gap
Monroe, LA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Salt Lake City-Murray, UT pays $4,020 more per year than Monroe, LA for pump operators, except wellhead pumpers, a gap of +5.2%.

After adjusting for cost of living, the picture flips. Monroe, LA actually offers more purchasing power, effectively paying $11,042 more in national-price-level terms (a +14.4% 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

Monroe, LA

Median salary
$73,370
Mean salary
$57,990
Employment
50
Location quotient
6.83
Jobs per 1,000
0.6
COL-adjusted median
$87,766
Regional Price Parity
83.6%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers page for Monroe, LA →

Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers

Salt Lake City-Murray, UT

Median salary
$77,390
Mean salary
$74,710
Employment
110
Location quotient
1.70
Jobs per 1,000
0.1
COL-adjusted median
$76,724
Regional Price Parity
100.9%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers page for Salt Lake City-Murray, UT →

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.