Baton Rouge, LA Salaries
Local wages where BEA prices sit below the US average (RPP 90.8) - BLS OEWS May 2025
Observed metro pay change
What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025
- BLS's published All Occupations median in Baton Rouge, LA moved from $47,940 in May 2024 to $48,710 in May 2025 (+1.6%).
- Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
- Baton Rouge, LA sits -1.5 pp behind that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.
Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in Baton Rouge, LA
Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders publishes $93,920 here versus $58,040 nationally (+61.8%; 2,500metro-area jobs). Next is Waiters and Waitresses at $15,080 locally versus $35,230 nationally (-57.2%).
- Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders$93,920 in Baton Rouge, LA sits 61.8% above the national Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders median of $58,040 (2,500 published local jobs).
- Waiters and Waitresses$15,080 in Baton Rouge, LA sits 57.2% below the national Waiters and Waitresses median of $35,230 (6,650 published local jobs).
- Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers$78,170 in Baton Rouge, LA sits 45.4% above the national Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers median of $53,750 (3,690 published local jobs).
- Lawyers$102,070 in Baton Rouge, LA sits 36.1% below the national Lawyers median of $159,670 (2,300 published local jobs).
Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for Baton Rouge, LA; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.
BLS OEWS metro wage desk
MSA 12940 · Baton Rouge, LA $61K mean
MEAN-MID · RPP-LOW · OCC-MOST · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-INLINE · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-FULL
- MEAN-MID #183/528
- RPP-LOW 90.8
- OCC-MOST 491 occs
- TOP-LEAD Physicians, Al… · $414K
- EMP-MIX Construction…
- TREND-INLINE -1.5 pp
- PHOTO-FINISH Decatur, IL
- BOOK-FULL 478 rows · May 2025
Read with Decatur, IL (+$27 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 Baton Rouge, LA
Where Baton Rouge, LA already employs the upper wage tier
Construction Managers and Financial Managers lead published employment inside Baton Rouge, LA's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.
- 1. Construction Managers 2,170 jobs · $118,770
- 2. Financial Managers 1,770 jobs · $129,310
- 3. Physicians, All Other 1,060 jobs · $413,620
- 4. Nurse Practitioners 1,010 jobs · $129,070
- 5. Pharmacists 960 jobs · $134,680
- 6. Computer and Information Systems Managers 950 jobs · $120,210
- 7. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels 900 jobs · $129,260
- 8. Industrial Production Managers 690 jobs · $139,860
- 9. Architectural and Engineering Managers 560 jobs · $165,060
- 10. Mechanical Engineers 540 jobs · $135,530
- 11. Industrial Engineers 470 jobs · $129,500
- 12. Dentists, General 430 jobs · $185,430
- 13. Chemical Engineers 360 jobs · $134,800
- 14. Physician Assistants 360 jobs · $130,670
- 15. Electrical Engineers 350 jobs · $133,030
- 16. Environmental Engineers 170 jobs · $138,000
- 17. Veterinarians 160 jobs · $126,890
- 18. Electronics Engineers, Except Computer 160 jobs · $125,260
Occupations Tracked
491
with wage data
Published-Row Mean
$60,611
employment-weighted, 478 complete rows
Top Salary
$413,620
Physicians, All Other
Cost of Living
90.8
9% below US avg
Top-pay occupations in Baton Rouge, LA, 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 Baton Rouge, LA
| Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Waiters and Waitresses | $15,080 |
| Crossing Guards and Flaggers | $17,780 |
| Bartenders | $20,640 |
| Amusement and Recreation Attendants | $21,380 |
| Food Preparation and Serving Related Workers, All Other | $21,640 |
| Physical Therapist Aides | $21,910 |
| Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers | $22,240 |
| Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop | $22,430 |
| Home Health and Personal Care Aides | $23,040 |
| Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders | $23,600 |
Other BLS Wage Areas in LA
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 LA. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($60,611 here) and summed published employment.
Similar mean wage
Nearest other metros by employment-weighted published-row annual mean wage.
Similar employment scale
Nearest headcount peers (floor 100,000 summed published jobs), distinct from the mean-wage column.
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.