San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA Salaries
Local wages against a high BEA price level (RPP 111.9) - BLS OEWS May 2025
Observed metro pay change
What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025
- BLS's published All Occupations median in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA moved from $56,580 in May 2024 to $58,690 in May 2025 (+3.7%).
- Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
- San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA sits +0.6 pp ahead of that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.
Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA
Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary publishes $163,200 here versus $105,870 nationally (+54.2%; 2,370metro-area jobs). Next is Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education at $97,000 locally versus $63,970 nationally (+51.6%).
- Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary$163,200 in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA sits 54.2% above the national Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary median of $105,870 (2,370 published local jobs).
- Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education$97,000 in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA sits 51.6% above the national Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education median of $63,970 (11,340 published local jobs).
- Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers$110,400 in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA sits 44.9% above the national Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers median of $76,210 (4,950 published local jobs).
- Substitute Teachers, Short-Term$59,860 in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA sits 43.7% above the national Substitute Teachers, Short-Term median of $41,670 (9,480 published local jobs).
Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.
BLS OEWS metro wage desk
MSA 41740 · San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA $79K mean
MEAN-MEGA · RPP-ELEV · OCC-MOST · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-INLINE · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-FULL
- MEAN-MEGA #12/528
- RPP-ELEV 111.9
- OCC-MOST 671 occs
- TOP-LEAD Cardiologists · $494K
- EMP-MIX Managers, Al…
- TREND-INLINE +0.6 pp
- PHOTO-FINISH Portland-Vancouv…
- BOOK-FULL 656 rows · May 2025
Read with Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA ($1,886 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 San Diego-Chula Vista-Carls…
Largest San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA payrolls before the high-cost adjustment
Managers, All Other and Lawyers lead published employment inside San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.
- 1. Managers, All Other 9,370 jobs · $169,240
- 2. Lawyers 8,020 jobs · $178,220
- 3. Financial Managers 7,350 jobs · $174,210
- 4. Computer and Information Systems Managers 7,250 jobs · $206,740
- 5. Physicians, All Other 4,200 jobs · $323,050
- 6. Marketing Managers 3,790 jobs · $174,840
- 7. Computer Hardware Engineers 3,330 jobs · $174,440
- 8. Architectural and Engineering Managers 3,270 jobs · $202,810
- 9. Natural Sciences Managers 2,890 jobs · $207,200
- 10. Chief Executives 2,710 jobs · $238,440
- 11. Family Medicine Physicians 1,360 jobs · $295,530
- 12. Pediatricians, General 630 jobs · $262,650
- 13. Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers 340 jobs · $321,950
- 14. Psychiatrists 310 jobs · $335,620
- 15. Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric 230 jobs · $204,290
- 16. Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Teachers, Postsecondary 150 jobs · $168,410
- 17. Radiation Therapists 140 jobs · $171,500
- 18. Obstetricians and Gynecologists 100 jobs · $293,400
Occupations Tracked
671
with wage data
Published-Row Mean
$78,524
employment-weighted, 656 complete rows
Top Salary
$493,670
Cardiologists
Cost of Living
111.9
12% above US avg
Highest Paying Jobs in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA
| # | Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cardiologists | $493,670 |
| 2 | Psychiatrists | $335,620 |
| 3 | Physicians, Pathologists | $333,330 |
| 4 | Physicians, All Other | $323,050 |
| 5 | Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers | $321,950 |
| 6 | Family Medicine Physicians | $295,530 |
| 7 | Obstetricians and Gynecologists | $293,400 |
| 8 | General Internal Medicine Physicians | $282,200 |
| 9 | Pediatricians, General | $262,650 |
| 10 | Chief Executives | $238,440 |
| 11 | Podiatrists | $235,390 |
| 12 | Dermatologists | $233,370 |
| 13 | Natural Sciences Managers | $207,200 |
| 14 | Computer and Information Systems Managers | $206,740 |
| 15 | Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric | $204,290 |
| 16 | Architectural and Engineering Managers | $202,810 |
| 17 | Nurse Midwives | $181,450 |
| 18 | Lawyers | $178,220 |
| 19 | Marketing Managers | $174,840 |
| 20 | Computer Hardware Engineers | $174,440 |
| 21 | Financial Managers | $174,210 |
| 22 | Power Distributors and Dispatchers | $173,120 |
| 23 | Radiation Therapists | $171,500 |
| 24 | Managers, All Other | $169,240 |
| 25 | Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Teachers, Postsecondary | $168,410 |
Lowest Paying Jobs in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA
| Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Home Health and Personal Care Aides | $35,300 |
| Shoe and Leather Workers and Repairers | $35,470 |
| Gambling Dealers | $35,840 |
| Waiters and Waitresses | $35,850 |
| Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers | $35,960 |
| Ambulance Drivers and Attendants, Except Emergency Medical Technicians | $36,030 |
| Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop | $36,140 |
| Bartenders | $36,260 |
| Food Preparation and Serving Related Workers, All Other | $36,330 |
| Textile, Apparel, and Furnishings Workers, All Other | $36,510 |
Other BLS Wage Areas in CA
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 CA. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($78,524 here) and summed published employment.
Similar mean wage
Nearest other metros by employment-weighted published-row annual mean wage.
Similar employment scale
Nearest headcount peers (floor 100,000 summed published jobs), distinct from the mean-wage column.
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.