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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Stationary Engineers And Boiler Operators Salary: South Dakota vs Hawaii

Stationary Engineers And Boiler Operators earn a median of $66,000 in South Dakota and $100,200 in Hawaii. That is a nominal gap of $34,200 (-34.1%), with Hawaii 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.

$66,000
South Dakota median
$74,504 after COL
$100,200
Hawaii median
$91,132 after COL
-34.1%
Nominal gap
Hawaii leads
-18.2%
Adjusted gap
Hawaii leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Hawaii pays $34,200 more per year than South Dakota for stationary engineers and boiler operators, a gap of +34.1%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Hawaii still comes out ahead, with roughly $16,628 of extra purchasing power (+18.2% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for stationary engineers and boiler operators in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Stationary Engineers And Boiler Operators

South Dakota

Median salary
$66,000
Mean salary
$60,750
Employment
90
Location quotient
1.00
Jobs per 1,000
0.2
COL-adjusted median
$74,504
Regional Price Parity
88.6%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Stationary Engineers And Boiler Operators page for South Dakota →

Stationary Engineers And Boiler Operators

Hawaii

Median salary
$100,200
Mean salary
$93,610
Employment
90
Location quotient
0.76
Jobs per 1,000
0.2
COL-adjusted median
$91,132
Regional Price Parity
110.0%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Stationary Engineers And Boiler Operators page for Hawaii →

Related pages

Keep digging into stationary engineers and boiler operators 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.