Iowa City, IA Salaries
Local wages where BEA prices sit below the US average (RPP 91.5) - BLS OEWS May 2025
Observed metro pay change
What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025
- BLS's published All Occupations median in Iowa City, IA moved from $49,390 in May 2024 to $50,060 in May 2025 (+1.4%).
- Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
- Iowa City, IA sits -1.7 pp behind that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.
Retail Salespersons shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in Iowa City, IA
Retail Salespersons publishes $29,940 here versus $35,410 nationally (-15.4%; 2,710metro-area jobs). Next is Registered Nurses at $85,940 locally versus $97,550 nationally (-11.9%).
- Retail Salespersons$29,940 in Iowa City, IA sits 15.4% below the national Retail Salespersons median of $35,410 (2,710 published local jobs).
- Registered Nurses$85,940 in Iowa City, IA sits 11.9% below the national Registered Nurses median of $97,550 (4,090 published local jobs).
- Cashiers$29,080 in Iowa City, IA sits 11.6% below the national Cashiers median of $32,880 (2,090 published local jobs).
- Fast Food and Counter Workers$28,760 in Iowa City, IA sits 7.8% below the national Fast Food and Counter Workers median of $31,200 (2,890 published local jobs).
Retail Salespersons and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for Iowa City, IA; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.
BLS OEWS metro wage desk
MSA 26980 · Iowa City, IA $61K mean
MEAN-MID · RPP-LOW · OCC-MID · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-INLINE · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-MOST
- MEAN-MID #173/528
- RPP-LOW 91.5
- OCC-MID 296 occs
- TOP-LEAD Anesthesiologi… · $407K
- EMP-MIX Software Dev…
- TREND-INLINE -1.7 pp
- PHOTO-FINISH San Antonio-New…
- BOOK-MOST 295 rows · May 2025
Read with San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX (+$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 Iowa City, IA
Where Iowa City, IA already employs the upper wage tier
Software Developers and Medical and Health Services Managers lead published employment inside Iowa City, IA's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.
- 1. Software Developers 690 jobs · $107,680
- 2. Medical and Health Services Managers 680 jobs · $107,570
- 3. Physicians, All Other 470 jobs · $257,340
- 4. Pharmacists 450 jobs · $142,530
- 5. Financial Managers 390 jobs · $132,220
- 6. Nurse Practitioners 330 jobs · $129,030
- 7. Physician Assistants 230 jobs · $134,770
- 8. Managers, All Other 180 jobs · $109,140
- 9. Computer and Information Systems Managers 160 jobs · $134,210
- 10. Human Resources Managers 160 jobs · $118,070
- 11. Lawyers 140 jobs · $127,210
- 12. Chief Executives 110 jobs · $205,340
- 13. Sales Managers 100 jobs · $126,520
- 14. Computer Programmers 100 jobs · $113,590
- 15. Information Security Analysts 80 jobs · $120,370
- 16. Marketing Managers 80 jobs · $118,850
- 17. Public Relations Managers 70 jobs · $127,760
- 18. Administrative Services Managers 70 jobs · $120,940
Occupations Tracked
296
with wage data
Published-Row Mean
$60,868
employment-weighted, 295 complete rows
Top Salary
$407,230
Anesthesiologists
Cost of Living
91.5
8% below US avg
Top-pay occupations in Iowa City, IA, 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 | Software Developers | $107,680 |
| 2 | Medical and Health Services Managers | $107,570 |
| 3 | Physicians, All Other | $257,340 |
| 4 | Pharmacists | $142,530 |
| 5 | Financial Managers | $132,220 |
| 6 | Nurse Practitioners | $129,030 |
| 7 | Physician Assistants | $134,770 |
| 8 | Managers, All Other | $109,140 |
| 9 | Computer and Information Systems Managers | $134,210 |
| 10 | Human Resources Managers | $118,070 |
| 11 | Lawyers | $127,210 |
| 12 | Chief Executives | $205,340 |
| 13 | Sales Managers | $126,520 |
| 14 | Computer Programmers | $113,590 |
| 15 | Information Security Analysts | $120,370 |
| 16 | Marketing Managers | $118,850 |
| 17 | Public Relations Managers | $127,760 |
| 18 | Administrative Services Managers | $120,940 |
| 19 | Dentists, General | $199,410 |
| 20 | Architectural and Engineering Managers | $151,850 |
| 21 | Anesthesiologists | $407,230 |
| 22 | Budget Analysts | $134,850 |
| 23 | Veterinarians | $128,180 |
| 24 | Family Medicine Physicians | $208,900 |
| 25 | Psychiatrists | $161,550 |
Lowest Paying Jobs in Iowa City, IA
| Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Bartenders | $21,900 |
| Waiters and Waitresses | $22,030 |
| Physical Therapist Aides | $27,700 |
| Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop | $28,510 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | $28,760 |
| Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers | $28,860 |
| Amusement and Recreation Attendants | $28,870 |
| Cashiers | $29,080 |
| Childcare Workers | $29,170 |
| Cooks, Fast Food | $29,200 |
Other BLS Wage Areas in IA
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 IA. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($60,868 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
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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.