Auburn-Opelika, AL Salaries

Local wages where BEA prices sit below the US average (RPP 87.9) - BLS OEWS May 2025

Observed metro pay change

What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025

May 2024 → May 2025
  • BLS's published All Occupations median in Auburn-Opelika, AL moved from $38,060 in May 2024 to $39,070 in May 2025 (+2.7%).
  • Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
  • Auburn-Opelika, AL sits -0.4 pp near that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.

Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in Auburn-Opelika, AL

Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators publishes $34,530 here versus $44,650 nationally (-22.7%; 2,000metro-area jobs). Next is Fast Food and Counter Workers at $24,600 locally versus $31,200 nationally (-21.2%).

  1. Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators$34,530 in Auburn-Opelika, AL sits 22.7% below the national Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators median of $44,650 (2,000 published local jobs).
  2. Fast Food and Counter Workers$24,600 in Auburn-Opelika, AL sits 21.2% below the national Fast Food and Counter Workers median of $31,200 (2,370 published local jobs).
  3. Retail Salespersons$29,140 in Auburn-Opelika, AL sits 17.7% below the national Retail Salespersons median of $35,410 (2,300 published local jobs).

Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for Auburn-Opelika, AL; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.

BLS OEWS metro wage desk

MSA 12220 · Auburn-Opelika, AL $51K mean

MEAN-TRACE · RPP-QUIET · OCC-MID · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-INLINE · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-MOST

  • MEAN-TRACE #458/528
  • RPP-QUIET 87.9
  • OCC-MID 260 occs
  • TOP-LEAD Physicians, Al… · $294K
  • EMP-MIX General and…
  • TREND-INLINE -0.4 pp
  • PHOTO-FINISH Middle Georgia n…
  • BOOK-MOST 256 rows · May 2025

Read with Middle Georgia nonmetropolitan area (+$2 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 Auburn-Opelika, AL

Guayama, PR · lowest mean: $32KGuayama, PR · lowest mean$32KAuburn-Opelika, AL · this MSA: $51KAuburn-Opelika, AL · this MSA$51KMiddle Georgia nonme… · near: $51KMiddle Georgia nonme… · near$51KJonesboro, AR · near: $51KJonesboro, AR · near$51KTexarkana, TX-AR · near: $51KTexarkana, TX-AR · near$51KWest Kentucky nonmet… · near: $51KWest Kentucky nonmet… · near$51KSan Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · highest mean: $119KSan Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · high…$119K
Read the chart as text
Label Value
Guayama, PR · lowest mean $32K
Auburn-Opelika, AL · this MSA $51K
Middle Georgia nonme… · near $51K
Jonesboro, AR · near $51K
Texarkana, TX-AR · near $51K
West Kentucky nonmet… · near $51K
San Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · highest mean $119K

Where Auburn-Opelika, AL already employs the upper wage tier

General and Operations Managers and Construction Managers lead published employment inside Auburn-Opelika, AL's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.

  1. 1. General and Operations Managers 920 jobs · $103,380
  2. 2. Construction Managers 400 jobs · $100,140
  3. 3. Software Developers 290 jobs · $120,310
  4. 4. Medical and Health Services Managers 290 jobs · $100,850
  5. 5. Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary 260 jobs · $103,580
  6. 6. Pharmacists 210 jobs · $133,180
  7. 7. Physicians, All Other 180 jobs · $293,630
  8. 8. Computer and Information Systems Managers 180 jobs · $129,590
  9. 9. Financial Managers 180 jobs · $129,580
  10. 10. Nurse Practitioners 180 jobs · $108,500
  11. 11. Lawyers 120 jobs · $100,560
  12. 12. Industrial Production Managers 100 jobs · $110,980
  13. 13. Mechanical Engineers 100 jobs · $100,230
  14. 14. Sales Managers 90 jobs · $116,000
  15. 15. Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary 90 jobs · $99,870
  16. 16. Architectural and Engineering Managers 70 jobs · $144,800
  17. 17. Information Security Analysts 70 jobs · $120,950
  18. 18. Human Resources Managers 70 jobs · $108,590

Occupations Tracked

260

with wage data

Published-Row Mean

$51,224

employment-weighted, 256 complete rows

Top Salary

$293,630

Physicians, All Other

Cost of Living

87.9

12% below US avg

Price-level adjustment: Dividing the derived published-row mean of $51,224 by the metro RPP gives $58,253 on a national-price basis. This is not an after-tax income or a personal cost-of-living result.

Top-pay occupations in Auburn-Opelika, AL, by employment

Same top-pay sample as the salary ranking, sorted by published local jobs so the title sequence follows the OEWS mix.

# Occupation Median Salary
1 General and Operations Managers $103,380
2 Construction Managers $100,140
3 Software Developers $120,310
4 Medical and Health Services Managers $100,850
5 Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary $103,580
6 Pharmacists $133,180
7 Physicians, All Other $293,630
8 Computer and Information Systems Managers $129,590
9 Financial Managers $129,580
10 Nurse Practitioners $108,500
11 Lawyers $100,560
12 Industrial Production Managers $110,980
13 Mechanical Engineers $100,230
14 Sales Managers $116,000
15 Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary $99,870
16 Architectural and Engineering Managers $144,800
17 Information Security Analysts $120,950
18 Human Resources Managers $108,590
19 Marketing Managers $106,300
20 Veterinarians $101,060
21 Computer Network Architects $102,380
22 Computer Science Teachers, Postsecondary $128,090
23 Administrative Services Managers $108,110
24 Electrical Engineers $109,100
25 Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers $105,180

Lowest Paying Jobs in Auburn-Opelika, AL

Other BLS Wage Areas in AL

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 AL. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($51,224 here) and summed published employment.

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

What does the lower price level do to Auburn-Opelika, AL wage reading?
The employment-weighted published-row mean across 256 occupation rows is $51,224/year (BLS OEWS May 2025). BEA RPP 87.9 puts local prices 12% below the US average, so the same mean reads as $58,253 in national-price terms. Page lists 260 occupations with a published median — a different denominator. The top-tier median average of the 25 highest-paying rows is $119,398.
What is the highest paying job in Auburn-Opelika, AL?
The highest paying occupation in Auburn-Opelika, AL is Physicians, All Other with a median salary of $293,630/year. The second highest is Architectural and Engineering Managers at $144,800/year.
What jobs pay the least in Auburn-Opelika, AL?
The lowest paying occupation in Auburn-Opelika, AL is Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers with a median salary of $20,900/year according to BLS data.
Which federal tables feed Auburn-Opelika, AL's wage and price figures?
Occupation wages are BLS OEWS May 2025 estimates for this metropolitan statistical area. The price-level figure is BEA Regional Price Parities for the matching metro area (latest published year on the page). WageDex divides the employment-weighted published-row mean by RPP only when both inputs exist; it does not substitute a national RPP.

Last updated: May 2025 (BLS OEWS annual release). Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025. Cost-of-living index: BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024.

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.

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