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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Special Education Teachers, Secondary School Salary: Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN vs Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

Special Education Teachers, Secondary School earn a median of $63,840 in Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN and $103,150 in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA. That is a nominal gap of $39,310 (-38.1%), 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.

$63,840
Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN median
$68,591 after COL
$103,150
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA median
$90,828 after COL
-38.1%
Nominal gap
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA leads
-24.5%
Adjusted gap
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA pays $39,310 more per year than Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN for special education teachers, secondary school, a gap of +38.1%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA still comes out ahead, with roughly $22,238 of extra purchasing power (+24.5% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

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

Special Education Teachers, Secondary School

Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN

Median salary
$63,840
Mean salary
$62,990
Employment
520
Location quotient
0.72
Jobs per 1,000
0.8
COL-adjusted median
$68,591
Regional Price Parity
93.1%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Special Education Teachers, Secondary School page for Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN →

Special Education Teachers, Secondary School

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

Median salary
$103,150
Mean salary
$102,060
Employment
4,070
Location quotient
0.62
Jobs per 1,000
0.7
COL-adjusted median
$90,828
Regional Price Parity
113.6%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Special Education Teachers, Secondary School page for Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, 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.