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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Roustabouts, Oil And Gas Salary: Pittsburgh, PA vs Bakersfield-Delano, CA

Roustabouts, Oil And Gas earn a median of $48,960 in Pittsburgh, PA and $56,630 in Bakersfield-Delano, CA. That is a nominal gap of $7,670 (-13.5%), with Bakersfield-Delano, CA 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.

$48,960
Pittsburgh, PA median
$51,716 after COL
$56,630
Bakersfield-Delano, CA median
$56,133 after COL
-13.5%
Nominal gap
Bakersfield-Delano, CA leads
-7.9%
Adjusted gap
Bakersfield-Delano, CA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Bakersfield-Delano, CA pays $7,670 more per year than Pittsburgh, PA for roustabouts, oil and gas, a gap of +13.5%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Bakersfield-Delano, CA still comes out ahead, with roughly $4,417 of extra purchasing power (+7.9% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

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

Roustabouts, Oil And Gas

Pittsburgh, PA

Median salary
$48,960
Mean salary
$51,180
Employment
730
Location quotient
2.23
Jobs per 1,000
0.7
COL-adjusted median
$51,716
Regional Price Parity
94.7%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Roustabouts, Oil And Gas page for Pittsburgh, PA →

Roustabouts, Oil And Gas

Bakersfield-Delano, CA

Median salary
$56,630
Mean salary
$55,610
Employment
220
Location quotient
2.20
Jobs per 1,000
0.6
COL-adjusted median
$56,133
Regional Price Parity
100.9%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Roustabouts, Oil And Gas page for Bakersfield-Delano, CA →

Related pages

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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.