Chicago vs. Los Angeles
First-Line Supervisors of Transportation and Material Moving Workers, Except Aircraft Cargo Handling. Median, spread and buying power, side by side.
Data released May 2025
BLS OEWS · SOC 53-1047
Fig. 1 — Side by side
Both distributions, one scale
10th to 90th percentile, median struck in red
Table 1 — Adjusted
Chicago's median is 9.0% higher — but after local prices, Chicago still leads by 17.0%.
Chicago's median $68,330 buys $66,000 at national prices (price parity 103.6); Los Angeles's $62,190 buys $54,800 (113.6).
Table 2 — The figures
Point by point
Published percentiles for both metros; the last column is Los Angeles against Chicago.
| Chicago | Los Angeles | Δ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employment | 19,280 | 22,930 | +18.9% |
| 10th percentile | $48,040 | $45,570 | −5.1% |
| 25th percentile | $56,910 | $50,940 | −10.5% |
| Median | $68,330 | $62,190 | −9.0% |
| 75th percentile | $80,570 | $79,130 | −1.8% |
| 90th percentile | $98,900 | $98,990 | +0.1% |
Sources
How this page was made
- Wage data
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release. Public domain.
- Price parity
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024.
- Full pages
- First-Line Supervisors of Transportation and Material Moving Workers, Except Aircraft Cargo Handling in Chicago · First-Line Supervisors of Transportation and Material Moving Workers, Except Aircraft Cargo Handling in Los Angeles
Percentiles are reported exactly as released. Derived (price-adjusted) figures round to the nearest hundred. We take no payment for how any figure is presented.