2026 Edition · An annual reference on what work pays

Packers and Packagers, Hand

Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL metropolitan area. Estimated employment 2,450.

Data released May 2025 BLS OEWS · SOC 53-7064
Fig. 1 — The wage rule

Where you sit in the distribution

Drag the marker, or type a figure
$32,680 · 50th
$27,04010th
$27,22025th
$32,68050th
$42,61075th
$48,37090th

That is the medianhalf of people in this occupation in Lakeland earn more.

Table 1 — Adjusted

$32,680 in Lakeland buys what $33,600 buys across the country as a whole.

Lakeland's regional price parity is 97.1 — below the national average, so a dollar here goes further than the nominal figure suggests. Adjusted figures for other metros are in the nearby-metros table below.

Table 2 — Nearby metros

The same job, elsewhere in Florida

Adjusted figures apply each metro's regional price parity, so the columns are directly comparable.

Metro areaMedianAdjustedRPPvs. Lakeland
Lakeland This page$32,680$33,60097.1
Orlando$30,150$29,700101.4−11.6%
Naples$30,080$29,100103.2−13.4%
Jacksonville$29,750$29,90099.5−11.1%
Sebastian$28,380$28,90098.3−14.2%
North Port$28,310$27,600102.4−17.8%
Crestview$28,260$29,10097.0−13.4%
Tampa$28,000$27,800100.9−17.5%

Price parity and difference against Lakeland are in the full table on wider screens.

Fig. 2 — Five-year trend

Nominal against real

The same median, once as published and once restated in 2025 dollars.

20k25k30k35k 20212022202320242025
Nominal, as published Real, in 2025 dollars US$ thousands

Published pay rose 38.7% over the five years to 2025. Adjusted for inflation it still rose 16.7% — pay has outrun prices since 2021. The two lines meet at the right edge by construction, since 2025 is the base year.

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.
Inflation
Real figures deflate by CPI-U annual averages (BLS, all items, US city average).
Employment
2,450 employed in this occupation in the metro (BLS estimate; excludes the self-employed).
Occupation
SOC 53-7064, Packers and Packagers, Hand. Mapped to our taxonomy as packers-and-packagers-hand.

Percentiles are reported exactly as released and are never interpolated between published values. We take no payment from employers, recruiters or anyone else for how any figure is presented.