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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Teachers And Instructors, All Other Salary: Mayaguez, PR vs Merced, CA

Teachers And Instructors, All Other earn a median of $59,510 in Mayaguez, PR and $100,390 in Merced, CA. That is a nominal gap of $40,880 (-40.7%), with Merced, 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.

$59,510
Mayaguez, PR median
$100,390
Merced, CA median
$102,152 after COL
-40.7%
Nominal gap
Merced, CA leads
Adjusted gap
COL data not available

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Merced, CA pays $40,880 more per year than Mayaguez, PR for teachers and instructors, all other, a gap of +40.7%.

Cost-of-living data is not available for one or both locations, so we cannot show a purchasing-power view of this comparison. The nominal wage numbers above still reflect real paychecks in each area.

Full breakdown by location

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

Teachers And Instructors, All Other

Mayaguez, PR

Median salary
$59,510
Mean salary
$55,670
Employment
320
Location quotient
7.60
Jobs per 1,000
6.2
COL-adjusted median
N/A
Regional Price Parity
N/A

Full Teachers And Instructors, All Other page for Mayaguez, PR →

Teachers And Instructors, All Other

Merced, CA

Median salary
$100,390
Mean salary
$97,100
Employment
370
Location quotient
5.85
Jobs per 1,000
4.7
COL-adjusted median
$102,152
Regional Price Parity
98.3%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Teachers And Instructors, All Other page for Merced, CA →

Related pages

Keep digging into teachers and instructors, all other 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.