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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Tree Trimmers And Pruners Salary: Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA vs San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Tree Trimmers And Pruners earn a median of $78,920 in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA and $72,760 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA. That is a nominal gap of $6,160 (+8.5%), with Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA 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.

$78,920
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median
$74,862 after COL
$72,760
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA median
$65,892 after COL
+8.5%
Nominal gap
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA leads
+13.6%
Adjusted gap
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA pays $6,160 more per year than San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA for tree trimmers and pruners, a gap of +8.5%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA still comes out ahead, with roughly $8,970 of extra purchasing power (+13.6% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for tree trimmers and pruners in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Tree Trimmers And Pruners

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA

Median salary
$78,920
Mean salary
$71,480
Employment
800
Location quotient
2.12
Jobs per 1,000
0.7
COL-adjusted median
$74,862
Regional Price Parity
105.4%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Tree Trimmers And Pruners page for Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA →

Tree Trimmers And Pruners

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Median salary
$72,760
Mean salary
$70,580
Employment
570
Location quotient
1.61
Jobs per 1,000
0.5
COL-adjusted median
$65,892
Regional Price Parity
110.4%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Tree Trimmers And Pruners page for San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA →

Related pages

Keep digging into tree trimmers and pruners 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.