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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Sales Representatives Of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, And Travel Salary: District of Columbia vs California

Sales Representatives Of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, And Travel earn a median of $77,370 in District of Columbia and $79,410 in California. That is a nominal gap of $2,040 (-2.6%), with California 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.

$77,370
District of Columbia median
$70,400 after COL
$79,410
California median
$71,721 after COL
-2.6%
Nominal gap
California leads
-1.8%
Adjusted gap
California leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, California pays $2,040 more per year than District of Columbia for sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services, and travel, a gap of +2.6%.

After adjusting for cost of living, California still comes out ahead, with roughly $1,322 of extra purchasing power (+1.8% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services, and travel in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Sales Representatives Of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, And Travel

District of Columbia

Median salary
$77,370
Mean salary
$89,420
Employment
4,000
Location quotient
0.73
Jobs per 1,000
5.7
COL-adjusted median
$70,400
Regional Price Parity
109.9%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Sales Representatives Of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, And Travel page for District of Columbia →

Sales Representatives Of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, And Travel

California

Median salary
$79,410
Mean salary
$94,000
Employment
146,270
Location quotient
1.05
Jobs per 1,000
8.1
COL-adjusted median
$71,721
Regional Price Parity
110.7%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Sales Representatives Of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, And Travel page for California →

Related pages

Keep digging into sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services, and travel 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.