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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, And Still Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders Salary: Knoxville, TN vs Napa, CA

Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, And Still Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders earn a median of $34,110 in Knoxville, TN and $66,440 in Napa, CA. That is a nominal gap of $32,330 (-48.7%), with Napa, 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.

$34,110
Knoxville, TN median
$36,848 after COL
$66,440
Napa, CA median
$59,029 after COL
-48.7%
Nominal gap
Napa, CA leads
-37.6%
Adjusted gap
Napa, CA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Napa, CA pays $32,330 more per year than Knoxville, TN for separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders, a gap of +48.7%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Napa, CA still comes out ahead, with roughly $22,181 of extra purchasing power (+37.6% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, And Still Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders

Knoxville, TN

Median salary
$34,110
Mean salary
$37,160
Employment
200
Location quotient
1.34
Jobs per 1,000
0.5
COL-adjusted median
$36,848
Regional Price Parity
92.6%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, And Still Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders page for Knoxville, TN →

Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, And Still Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders

Napa, CA

Median salary
$66,440
Mean salary
$78,010
Employment
1,360
Location quotient
49.46
Jobs per 1,000
17.4
COL-adjusted median
$59,029
Regional Price Parity
112.6%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, And Still Machine Setters, Operators, And Tenders page for Napa, CA →

Related pages

Keep digging into separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders 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.