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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Shoe Machine Operators And Tenders Salary: Lewiston-Auburn, ME vs Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

Shoe Machine Operators And Tenders earn a median of $39,830 in Lewiston-Auburn, ME and $45,670 in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA. That is a nominal gap of $5,840 (-12.8%), with Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, 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.

$39,830
Lewiston-Auburn, ME median
$42,043 after COL
$45,670
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA median
$40,215 after COL
-12.8%
Nominal gap
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA leads
+4.5%
Adjusted gap
Lewiston-Auburn, ME leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA pays $5,840 more per year than Lewiston-Auburn, ME for shoe machine operators and tenders, a gap of +12.8%.

After adjusting for cost of living, the picture flips. Lewiston-Auburn, ME actually offers more purchasing power, effectively paying $1,829 more in national-price-level terms (a +4.5% 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 shoe machine operators and tenders in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Shoe Machine Operators And Tenders

Lewiston-Auburn, ME

Median salary
$39,830
Mean salary
$41,460
Employment
90
Location quotient
86.52
Jobs per 1,000
1.8
COL-adjusted median
$42,043
Regional Price Parity
94.7%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Shoe Machine Operators And Tenders page for Lewiston-Auburn, ME →

Shoe Machine Operators And Tenders

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

Median salary
$45,670
Mean salary
$48,980
Employment
50
Location quotient
0.38
Jobs per 1,000
0.0
COL-adjusted median
$40,215
Regional Price Parity
113.6%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Shoe Machine Operators And Tenders page for Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA →

Related pages

Keep digging into shoe machine 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.