Decatur, AL Salaries
Local wages where BEA prices sit below the US average (RPP 87.2) - BLS OEWS May 2025
Observed metro pay change
What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025
- BLS's published All Occupations median in Decatur, AL moved from $44,470 in May 2024 to $46,280 in May 2025 (+4.1%).
- Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
- Decatur, AL sits +1.0 pp ahead of that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.
BLS OEWS metro wage desk
MSA 19460 · Decatur, AL $57K mean
MEAN-LOW · RPP-QUIET · OCC-MID · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-INLINE · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-MOST
- MEAN-LOW #311/528
- RPP-QUIET 87.2
- OCC-MID 241 occs
- TOP-LEAD Physicians, Al… · $352K
- EMP-MIX General and…
- TREND-INLINE +1.0 pp
- PHOTO-FINISH Northeastern Wis…
- BOOK-MOST 236 rows · May 2025
Read with Northeastern Wisconsin nonmetropolitan area ($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 Decatur, AL
Where Decatur, AL already employs the upper wage tier
General and Operations Managers and Mechanical Engineers lead published employment inside Decatur, AL's top-pay sample, order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.
- 1. General and Operations Managers 850 jobs · $117,380
- 2. Mechanical Engineers 310 jobs · $115,750
- 3. Industrial Production Managers 240 jobs · $150,030
- 4. Architectural and Engineering Managers 160 jobs · $165,480
- 5. Electrical Engineers 160 jobs · $124,440
- 6. Financial Managers 150 jobs · $142,940
- 7. Computer and Information Systems Managers 130 jobs · $135,870
- 8. Pharmacists 120 jobs · $133,410
- 9. Sales Managers 110 jobs · $133,480
- 10. Aerospace Engineers 100 jobs · $138,460
- 11. Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors 90 jobs · $125,940
- 12. Lawyers 70 jobs · $139,010
- 13. Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic 70 jobs · $114,470
- 14. Computer Network Architects 60 jobs · $132,570
- 15. Physicians, All Other 50 jobs · $351,790
- 16. Materials Engineers 50 jobs · $134,370
- 17. Information Security Analysts 50 jobs · $130,400
- 18. Environmental Engineers 50 jobs · $129,290
Occupations Tracked
241
with wage data
Published-Row Mean
$56,521
employment-weighted, 236 complete rows
Top Salary
$351,790
Physicians, All Other
Cost of Living
87.2
13% below US avg
Top-pay occupations in Decatur, 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 | $117,380 |
| 2 | Mechanical Engineers | $115,750 |
| 3 | Industrial Production Managers | $150,030 |
| 4 | Architectural and Engineering Managers | $165,480 |
| 5 | Electrical Engineers | $124,440 |
| 6 | Financial Managers | $142,940 |
| 7 | Computer and Information Systems Managers | $135,870 |
| 8 | Pharmacists | $133,410 |
| 9 | Sales Managers | $133,480 |
| 10 | Aerospace Engineers | $138,460 |
| 11 | Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors | $125,940 |
| 12 | Lawyers | $139,010 |
| 13 | Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic | $114,470 |
| 14 | Computer Network Architects | $132,570 |
| 15 | Physicians, All Other | $351,790 |
| 16 | Materials Engineers | $134,370 |
| 17 | Information Security Analysts | $130,400 |
| 18 | Environmental Engineers | $129,290 |
| 19 | Human Resources Managers | $123,160 |
| 20 | Managers, All Other | $116,730 |
| 21 | Purchasing Managers | $132,320 |
| 22 | Facilities Managers | $128,880 |
| 23 | Marketing Managers | $128,500 |
| 24 | Family Medicine Physicians | $118,450 |
| 25 | Power Plant Operators | $115,920 |
Lowest Paying Jobs in Decatur, AL
| Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Substitute Teachers, Short-Term | $17,680 |
| Bus Drivers, School | $17,720 |
| Childcare Workers | $22,170 |
| Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary | $23,210 |
| Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers | $23,290 |
| Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria | $23,650 |
| Ushers, Lobby Attendants, and Ticket Takers | $23,960 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | $25,720 |
| Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop | $26,630 |
| Waiters and Waitresses | $27,010 |
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 ($56,521 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
What does the lower price level do to Decatur, AL wage reading? ▼
What is the highest paying job in Decatur, AL? ▼
What jobs pay the least in Decatur, AL? ▼
Which federal tables feed Decatur, AL's wage and price figures? ▼
Related federal data
What to do with this data
How to use Decatur, AL wage figures in a real decision
- Physicians, All Other leads published medians in Decatur, AL at $351,790/year; open the occupation for percentile bands and state rows. Physicians, All Other
- The employment-weighted published-row mean of $56,521 adjusts to about $64,809 on a national-price basis at BEA RPP 87.2. Salary vs cost of living
- Compare this metropolitan statistical area against the statewide occupation table for AL 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.