Cape Girardeau, MO-IL Salaries

Local wages where BEA prices sit below the US average (RPP 86.1) - 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 Cape Girardeau, MO-IL moved from $42,060 in May 2024 to $44,470 in May 2025 (+5.7%).
  • Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
  • Cape Girardeau, MO-IL sits +2.6 pp ahead of that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.
C-
Wage Scorecard
53/100
Cape Girardeau, MO-IL

Based on wage level, year-over-year wage growth, and regional-price-parity-adjusted purchasing power from BLS and BEA sources, not job availability, industry mix, or day-to-day livability.

Wage Level F
$44,470
All-occupation median annual wage (BLS OEWS)
Wage Growth A
+5.7%
Year-over-year change in median wage (BLS OEWS)
Real Purchasing Power C
$51,662
Median wage adjusted for regional price parity (RPP 86.1, BEA)

BLS OEWS metro wage desk

MSA 16020 · Cape Girardeau, MO-IL $53K mean

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

  • MEAN-TRACE #417/528
  • RPP-QUIET 86.1
  • OCC-MID 203 occs
  • TOP-LEAD Pharmacists · $141K
  • EMP-MIX Medical and…
  • TREND-AHEAD +2.6 pp
  • PHOTO-FINISH Burlington, NC
  • BOOK-MOST 201 rows · May 2025

Read with Burlington, NC ($12 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 Cape Girardeau, MO-IL

Guayama, PR · lowest mean: $32KGuayama, PR · lowest mean$32KCape Girardeau, MO-IL · this MSA: $53KCape Girardeau, MO-IL · this…$53KBurlington, NC · near: $53KBurlington, NC · near$53KTuscaloosa, AL · near: $53KTuscaloosa, AL · near$53KCentral Indiana nonm… · near: $53KCentral Indiana nonm… · near$53KWeirton-Steubenville… · near: $53KWeirton-Steubenville… · near$53KSan Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · highest mean: $119KSan Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · high…$119K
Read the chart as text
Label Value
Guayama, PR · lowest mean $32K
Cape Girardeau, MO-IL · this MSA $53K
Burlington, NC · near $53K
Tuscaloosa, AL · near $53K
Central Indiana nonm… · near $53K
Weirton-Steubenville… · near $53K
San Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · highest mean $119K

Where Cape Girardeau, MO-IL already employs the upper wage tier

Medical and Health Services Managers and Nurse Practitioners lead published employment inside Cape Girardeau, MO-IL's top-pay sample, order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.

  1. 1. Medical and Health Services Managers 280 jobs · $104,010
  2. 2. Nurse Practitioners 200 jobs · $130,000
  3. 3. First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers 180 jobs · $88,150
  4. 4. Financial Managers 120 jobs · $139,690
  5. 5. Lawyers 120 jobs · $94,600
  6. 6. Pharmacists 100 jobs · $141,250
  7. 7. Physical Therapists 100 jobs · $100,420
  8. 8. Sales Managers 100 jobs · $98,810
  9. 9. Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary 100 jobs · $96,860
  10. 10. Software Developers 90 jobs · $100,220
  11. 11. Managers, All Other 90 jobs · $98,220
  12. 12. Computer and Information Systems Managers 80 jobs · $128,230
  13. 13. Speech-Language Pathologists 80 jobs · $97,900
  14. 14. Industrial Production Managers 70 jobs · $133,110
  15. 15. Construction Managers 70 jobs · $102,980
  16. 16. Occupational Therapists 70 jobs · $98,990
  17. 17. Industrial Engineers 60 jobs · $98,650
  18. 18. Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers 50 jobs · $99,650

Occupations Tracked

203

with wage data

Published-Row Mean

$53,045

employment-weighted, 201 complete rows

Top Salary

$141,250

Pharmacists

Cost of Living

86.1

14% below US avg

Price-level adjustment: Dividing the derived published-row mean of $53,045 by the metro RPP gives $61,624 on a national-price basis. This is not an after-tax income or a personal cost-of-living result.

Top-pay occupations in Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, 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 Medical and Health Services Managers $104,010
2 Nurse Practitioners $130,000
3 First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers $88,150
4 Financial Managers $139,690
5 Lawyers $94,600
6 Pharmacists $141,250
7 Physical Therapists $100,420
8 Sales Managers $98,810
9 Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary $96,860
10 Software Developers $100,220
11 Managers, All Other $98,220
12 Computer and Information Systems Managers $128,230
13 Speech-Language Pathologists $97,900
14 Industrial Production Managers $133,110
15 Construction Managers $102,980
16 Occupational Therapists $98,990
17 Industrial Engineers $98,650
18 Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers $99,650
19 Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers $96,320
20 Marketing Managers $94,750
21 Physician Assistants $141,080
22 Mechanical Engineers $94,940
23 Facilities Managers $94,140
24 Human Resources Managers $128,240
25 Veterinarians $100,360

Lowest Paying Jobs in Cape Girardeau, MO-IL

Other BLS Wage Areas in MO

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 MO. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($53,045 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 Cape Girardeau, MO-IL wage reading?
The employment-weighted published-row mean across 201 occupation rows is $53,045/year (BLS OEWS May 2025). BEA RPP 86.1 puts local prices 14% below the US average, so the same mean reads as $61,624 in national-price terms. Page lists 203 occupations with a published median, a different denominator. The top-tier median average of the 25 highest-paying rows is $108,063.
What is the highest paying job in Cape Girardeau, MO-IL?
The highest paying occupation in Cape Girardeau, MO-IL is Pharmacists with a median salary of $141,250/year. The second highest is Physician Assistants at $141,080/year.
What jobs pay the least in Cape Girardeau, MO-IL?
The lowest paying occupation in Cape Girardeau, MO-IL is Residential Advisors with a median salary of $28,600/year according to BLS data.
Which federal tables feed Cape Girardeau, MO-IL'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.

What to do with this data

How to use Cape Girardeau, MO-IL wage figures in a real decision

  • Pharmacists leads published medians in Cape Girardeau, MO-IL at $141,250/year; open the occupation for percentile bands and state rows. Pharmacists
  • The employment-weighted published-row mean of $53,045 adjusts to about $61,624 on a national-price basis at BEA RPP 86.1. Salary vs cost of living
  • Compare this metropolitan statistical area against the statewide occupation table for MO before treating one geography as the other. State wage page

BLS OEWS estimates reflect the May 2025 reference period; small occupation-area cells can be suppressed, and figures are not employer offers.

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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