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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Riggers Salary: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA vs Boise City, ID

Riggers earn a median of $88,490 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA and $102,860 in Boise City, ID. That is a nominal gap of $14,370 (-14.0%), with Boise City, ID 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.

$88,490
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA median
$80,137 after COL
$102,860
Boise City, ID median
$104,542 after COL
-14.0%
Nominal gap
Boise City, ID leads
-23.3%
Adjusted gap
Boise City, ID leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Boise City, ID pays $14,370 more per year than San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA for riggers, a gap of +14.0%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Boise City, ID still comes out ahead, with roughly $24,405 of extra purchasing power (+23.3% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

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

Riggers

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Median salary
$88,490
Mean salary
$90,900
Employment
70
Location quotient
0.38
Jobs per 1,000
0.1
COL-adjusted median
$80,137
Regional Price Parity
110.4%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Riggers page for San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA →

Riggers

Boise City, ID

Median salary
$102,860
Mean salary
$90,990
Employment
60
Location quotient
0.99
Jobs per 1,000
0.2
COL-adjusted median
$104,542
Regional Price Parity
98.4%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Riggers page for Boise City, ID →

Related pages

Keep digging into riggers 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.