Ames, IA Salaries
Local wages where BEA prices sit below the US average (RPP 88.8) - BLS OEWS May 2025
Observed metro pay change
What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025
- BLS's published All Occupations median in Ames, IA moved from $48,860 in May 2024 to $50,220 in May 2025 (+2.8%).
- Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
- Ames, IA sits -0.3 pp near that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.
BLS OEWS metro wage desk
MSA 11180 · Ames, IA $59K mean
MEAN-MID · RPP-LOW · OCC-MID · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-INLINE · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-MOST
- MEAN-MID #214/528
- RPP-LOW 88.8
- OCC-MID 246 occs
- TOP-LEAD Family Medicin… · $248K
- EMP-MIX Software Dev…
- TREND-INLINE -0.3 pp
- PHOTO-FINISH Lewiston-Auburn,…
- BOOK-MOST 245 rows · May 2025
Read with Lewiston-Auburn, ME (+$3 on published-row mean) · Salary vs. cost of living
Instrument codes from this MSA’s OEWS published-row mean, BEA RPP, occupation book, employment lead, All Occupations pay change, and nearest peer — not a moving recommendation.
Published-row mean neighbourhood around Ames, IA
Where Ames, IA already employs the upper wage tier
Software Developers and Medical and Health Services Managers lead published employment inside Ames, IA's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.
- 1. Software Developers 470 jobs · $129,440
- 2. Medical and Health Services Managers 280 jobs · $103,730
- 3. Financial Managers 220 jobs · $124,010
- 4. Computer and Information Systems Managers 130 jobs · $131,340
- 5. Managers, All Other 120 jobs · $138,110
- 6. Industrial Production Managers 120 jobs · $113,930
- 7. Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products 120 jobs · $105,330
- 8. Chief Executives 110 jobs · $206,090
- 9. Sales Managers 110 jobs · $133,150
- 10. Marketing Managers 110 jobs · $132,050
- 11. Architectural and Engineering Managers 90 jobs · $137,010
- 12. Lawyers 90 jobs · $125,200
- 13. Natural Sciences Managers 90 jobs · $116,540
- 14. Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary 90 jobs · $106,520
- 15. Veterinarians 80 jobs · $118,240
- 16. Pharmacists 70 jobs · $139,690
- 17. Nurse Practitioners 70 jobs · $127,600
- 18. Family Medicine Physicians 60 jobs · $248,000
Occupations Tracked
246
with wage data
Published-Row Mean
$59,293
employment-weighted, 245 complete rows
Top Salary
$248,000
Family Medicine Physicians
Cost of Living
88.8
11% below US avg
Top-pay occupations in Ames, IA, by employment
Same top-pay sample as the salary ranking, sorted by published local jobs so the title sequence follows the OEWS mix.
Lowest Paying Jobs in Ames, IA
| Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Bartenders | $21,580 |
| Waiters and Waitresses | $22,710 |
| Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers | $23,640 |
| Amusement and Recreation Attendants | $27,100 |
| Childcare Workers | $27,850 |
| Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop | $28,480 |
| Driver/Sales Workers | $28,760 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | $29,220 |
| Cashiers | $29,230 |
| Self-Enrichment Teachers | $29,570 |
Other BLS Wage Areas in IA
Other metropolitan or nonmetropolitan OEWS areas assigned to the same state. Cross-state pay and employment peers live in Nationwide similar metros below.
Nationwide metros with similar published-row mean pay or employment scale
Two OEWS peer sets outside IA. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($59,293 here) and summed published employment.
Similar mean wage
Nearest other metros by employment-weighted published-row annual mean wage.
Peers are nearest-neighbor matches on BLS OEWS employment-weighted published-row mean wage and summed occupation employment. Employment peers exclude metros already listed in the mean-wage column so the two link sets stay distinct. Mean wage here is not a worker-level median.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Related federal data
Source data and WageDex calculations are identified in context on this page. Occupation rows use BLS OEWS May 2025. The metro benchmark is WageDex's employment-weighted mean of published occupation means; where BEA RPP is available, the price-level figure divides that benchmark by the published area parity. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.