Rapid City, SD Salaries
Local wages where BEA prices sit below the US average (RPP 89.2) - BLS OEWS May 2025
Observed metro pay change
What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025
- BLS's published All Occupations median in Rapid City, SD moved from $44,260 in May 2024 to $46,270 in May 2025 (+4.5%).
- Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
- Rapid City, SD sits +1.4 pp ahead of that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.
Registered Nurses shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in Rapid City, SD
Registered Nurses publishes $79,380 here versus $97,550 nationally (-18.6%; 2,480metro-area jobs). Next is Retail Salespersons at $33,350 locally versus $35,410 nationally (-5.8%).
- Registered Nurses$79,380 in Rapid City, SD sits 18.6% below the national Registered Nurses median of $97,550 (2,480 published local jobs).
- Retail Salespersons$33,350 in Rapid City, SD sits 5.8% below the national Retail Salespersons median of $35,410 (3,090 published local jobs).
- Fast Food and Counter Workers$29,440 in Rapid City, SD sits 5.6% below the national Fast Food and Counter Workers median of $31,200 (2,860 published local jobs).
Registered Nurses and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for Rapid City, SD; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.
BLS OEWS metro wage desk
MSA 39660 · Rapid City, SD $55K mean
MEAN-LOW · RPP-LOW · OCC-MID · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-INLINE · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-FULL
- MEAN-LOW #343/528
- RPP-LOW 89.2
- OCC-MID 308 occs
- TOP-LEAD Chief Executives · $301K
- EMP-MIX General and…
- TREND-INLINE +1.4 pp
- PHOTO-FINISH Macon-Bibb Count…
- BOOK-FULL 306 rows · May 2025
Read with Macon-Bibb County, GA (+$3 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 Rapid City, SD
Where Rapid City, SD already employs the upper wage tier
General and Operations Managers and Construction Managers lead published employment inside Rapid City, SD's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.
- 1. General and Operations Managers 700 jobs · $130,410
- 2. Construction Managers 240 jobs · $120,560
- 3. Pharmacists 210 jobs · $140,340
- 4. Nurse Practitioners 190 jobs · $124,160
- 5. Medical and Health Services Managers 190 jobs · $122,930
- 6. Physician Assistants 150 jobs · $130,740
- 7. Family Medicine Physicians 130 jobs · $230,530
- 8. Computer Systems Analysts 130 jobs · $104,350
- 9. Financial Managers 120 jobs · $160,280
- 10. Electrical Engineers 110 jobs · $105,330
- 11. First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers 110 jobs · $103,830
- 12. Dentists, General 90 jobs · $158,140
- 13. Managers, All Other 90 jobs · $109,350
- 14. Information Security Analysts 90 jobs · $108,030
- 15. Architectural and Engineering Managers 80 jobs · $196,800
- 16. Sales Managers 80 jobs · $134,010
- 17. Administrative Services Managers 80 jobs · $107,200
- 18. Chief Executives 70 jobs · $301,420
Occupations Tracked
308
with wage data
Published-Row Mean
$55,353
employment-weighted, 306 complete rows
Top Salary
$301,420
Chief Executives
Cost of Living
89.2
11% below US avg
Top-pay occupations in Rapid City, SD, 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 Rapid City, SD
| Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary | $27,740 |
| Packers and Packagers, Hand | $27,800 |
| Childcare Workers | $28,330 |
| Dishwashers | $28,390 |
| Substitute Teachers, Short-Term | $28,550 |
| Waiters and Waitresses | $29,020 |
| Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners | $29,210 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | $29,440 |
| Bartenders | $29,500 |
| Amusement and Recreation Attendants | $29,740 |
Other BLS Wage Areas in SD
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 SD. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($55,353 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.