Fayetteville, NC Salaries

Local wages where BEA prices sit below the US average (RPP 92.0) - 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 Fayetteville, NC moved from $44,600 in May 2024 to $45,620 in May 2025 (+2.3%).
  • Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
  • Fayetteville, NC sits -0.8 pp behind that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.

Cooks, Fast Food shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in Fayetteville, NC

Cooks, Fast Food publishes $23,430 here versus $30,890 nationally (-24.2%; 3,890metro-area jobs). Next is Cashiers at $27,390 locally versus $32,880 nationally (-16.7%).

  1. Cooks, Fast Food$23,430 in Fayetteville, NC sits 24.2% below the national Cooks, Fast Food median of $30,890 (3,890 published local jobs).
  2. Cashiers$27,390 in Fayetteville, NC sits 16.7% below the national Cashiers median of $32,880 (3,400 published local jobs).
  3. Business Operations Specialists, All Other$95,620 in Fayetteville, NC sits 15.1% above the national Business Operations Specialists, All Other median of $83,050 (2,030 published local jobs).
  4. Registered Nurses$83,060 in Fayetteville, NC sits 14.9% below the national Registered Nurses median of $97,550 (3,430 published local jobs).

Cooks, Fast Food and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for Fayetteville, NC; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.

BLS OEWS metro wage desk

MSA 22180 · Fayetteville, NC $56K mean

MEAN-LOW · RPP-LOW · OCC-MID · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-INLINE · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-FULL

  • MEAN-LOW #334/528
  • RPP-LOW 92.0
  • OCC-MID 328 occs
  • TOP-LEAD Nurse Anesthet… · $332K
  • EMP-MIX Medical and…
  • TREND-INLINE -0.8 pp
  • PHOTO-FINISH Waterloo-Cedar F…
  • BOOK-FULL 325 rows · May 2025

Read with Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA ($17 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 Fayetteville, NC

Guayama, PR · lowest mean: $32KGuayama, PR · lowest mean$32KHarrisonburg, VA · near: $55KHarrisonburg, VA · near$55KFayetteville, NC · this MSA: $56KFayetteville, NC · this MSA$56KWaterloo-Cedar Falls… · near: $56KWaterloo-Cedar Falls… · near$56KSouth Central Wiscon… · near: $56KSouth Central Wiscon… · near$56KSpringfield, MO · near: $56KSpringfield, MO · near$56KSan Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · highest mean: $119KSan Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · high…$119K
Read the chart as text
Label Value
Guayama, PR · lowest mean $32K
Harrisonburg, VA · near $55K
Fayetteville, NC · this MSA $56K
Waterloo-Cedar Falls… · near $56K
South Central Wiscon… · near $56K
Springfield, MO · near $56K
San Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · highest mean $119K

Where Fayetteville, NC already employs the upper wage tier

Medical and Health Services Managers and Managers, All Other lead published employment inside Fayetteville, NC's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.

  1. 1. Medical and Health Services Managers 710 jobs · $120,310
  2. 2. Managers, All Other 550 jobs · $132,180
  3. 3. Software Developers 420 jobs · $122,900
  4. 4. Education Administrators, All Other 420 jobs · $111,320
  5. 5. Pharmacists 400 jobs · $140,220
  6. 6. Computer and Information Systems Managers 260 jobs · $151,490
  7. 7. Financial Managers 250 jobs · $138,040
  8. 8. Physician Assistants 220 jobs · $134,300
  9. 9. Nurse Practitioners 210 jobs · $121,410
  10. 10. Dentists, General 110 jobs · $196,470
  11. 11. Industrial Production Managers 100 jobs · $112,680
  12. 12. Nurse Anesthetists 90 jobs · $331,760
  13. 13. Human Resources Managers 90 jobs · $128,540
  14. 14. Architectural and Engineering Managers 80 jobs · $159,730
  15. 15. Engineers, All Other 80 jobs · $125,980
  16. 16. Marketing Managers 70 jobs · $140,730
  17. 17. Veterinarians 60 jobs · $128,190
  18. 18. Media and Communication Equipment Workers, All Other 60 jobs · $114,130

Occupations Tracked

328

with wage data

Published-Row Mean

$55,554

employment-weighted, 325 complete rows

Top Salary

$331,760

Nurse Anesthetists

Cost of Living

92.0

8% below US avg

Price-level adjustment: Dividing the derived published-row mean of $55,554 by the metro RPP gives $60,399 on a national-price basis. This is not an after-tax income or a personal cost-of-living result.

Top-pay occupations in Fayetteville, NC, 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 $120,310
2 Managers, All Other $132,180
3 Software Developers $122,900
4 Education Administrators, All Other $111,320
5 Pharmacists $140,220
6 Computer and Information Systems Managers $151,490
7 Financial Managers $138,040
8 Physician Assistants $134,300
9 Nurse Practitioners $121,410
10 Dentists, General $196,470
11 Industrial Production Managers $112,680
12 Nurse Anesthetists $331,760
13 Human Resources Managers $128,540
14 Architectural and Engineering Managers $159,730
15 Engineers, All Other $125,980
16 Marketing Managers $140,730
17 Veterinarians $128,190
18 Media and Communication Equipment Workers, All Other $114,130
19 Family Medicine Physicians $204,470
20 Natural Sciences Managers $165,260
21 Psychologists, All Other $129,830
22 General Internal Medicine Physicians $243,080
23 Psychiatrists $155,250
24 Commercial Pilots $128,170
25 Purchasing Managers $147,370

Lowest Paying Jobs in Fayetteville, NC

Other BLS Wage Areas in NC

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 NC. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($55,554 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 Fayetteville, NC wage reading?
The employment-weighted published-row mean across 325 occupation rows is $55,554/year (BLS OEWS May 2025). BEA RPP 92.0 puts local prices 8% below the US average, so the same mean reads as $60,399 in national-price terms. Page lists 328 occupations with a published median — a different denominator. The top-tier median average of the 25 highest-paying rows is $151,352.
What is the highest paying job in Fayetteville, NC?
The highest paying occupation in Fayetteville, NC is Nurse Anesthetists with a median salary of $331,760/year. The second highest is General Internal Medicine Physicians at $243,080/year.
What jobs pay the least in Fayetteville, NC?
The lowest paying occupation in Fayetteville, NC is Driver/Sales Workers with a median salary of $17,850/year according to BLS data.
Which federal tables feed Fayetteville, NC'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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