Topeka, KS Salaries

Local wages where BEA prices sit below the US average (RPP 88.8) - 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 Topeka, KS moved from $47,840 in May 2024 to $49,540 in May 2025 (+3.6%).
  • Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
  • Topeka, KS sits +0.5 pp near that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.

Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in Topeka, KS

Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand publishes $49,140 here versus $40,240 nationally (+22.1%; 2,140metro-area jobs). Next is General and Operations Managers at $85,080 locally versus $105,770 nationally (-19.6%).

  1. Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand$49,140 in Topeka, KS sits 22.1% above the national Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand median of $40,240 (2,140 published local jobs).
  2. General and Operations Managers$85,080 in Topeka, KS sits 19.6% below the national General and Operations Managers median of $105,770 (2,450 published local jobs).
  3. Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive$39,500 in Topeka, KS sits 16.9% below the national Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive median of $47,540 (2,920 published local jobs).
  4. Registered Nurses$81,820 in Topeka, KS sits 16.1% below the national Registered Nurses median of $97,550 (3,190 published local jobs).

Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for Topeka, KS; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.

BLS OEWS metro wage desk

MSA 45820 · Topeka, KS $62K mean

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

  • MEAN-MID #160/528
  • RPP-LOW 88.8
  • OCC-MID 333 occs
  • TOP-LEAD Physicians, Al… · $452K
  • EMP-MIX Software Dev…
  • TREND-INLINE +0.5 pp
  • PHOTO-FINISH Kalamazoo-Portag…
  • BOOK-FULL 330 rows · May 2025

Read with Kalamazoo-Portage, MI ($29 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 Topeka, KS

Guayama, PR · lowest mean: $32KGuayama, PR · lowest mean$32KMedford, OR · near: $61KMedford, OR · near$61KTopeka, KS · this MSA: $62KTopeka, KS · this MSA$62KKalamazoo-Portage, MI · near: $62KKalamazoo-Portage, MI · near$62KSouthwest Colorado n… · near: $62KSouthwest Colorado n… · near$62KNaples-Marco Island,… · near: $62KNaples-Marco Island,… · near$62KSan Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · highest mean: $119KSan Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · high…$119K
Read the chart as text
Label Value
Guayama, PR · lowest mean $32K
Medford, OR · near $61K
Topeka, KS · this MSA $62K
Kalamazoo-Portage, MI · near $62K
Southwest Colorado n… · near $62K
Naples-Marco Island,… · near $62K
San Jose-Sunnyvale-S… · highest mean $119K

Where Topeka, KS already employs the upper wage tier

Software Developers and Physicians, All Other lead published employment inside Topeka, KS's top-pay sample — order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.

  1. 1. Software Developers 1,500 jobs · $111,870
  2. 2. Physicians, All Other 500 jobs · $451,910
  3. 3. Nurse Practitioners 500 jobs · $132,740
  4. 4. Medical and Health Services Managers 440 jobs · $109,490
  5. 5. Sales Managers 380 jobs · $154,970
  6. 6. Financial Managers 370 jobs · $145,950
  7. 7. Computer and Information Systems Managers 360 jobs · $143,320
  8. 8. Pharmacists 280 jobs · $140,820
  9. 9. Chief Executives 240 jobs · $140,330
  10. 10. Electrical Engineers 220 jobs · $125,330
  11. 11. Construction Managers 200 jobs · $123,180
  12. 12. Marketing Managers 190 jobs · $205,310
  13. 13. Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products 190 jobs · $157,760
  14. 14. Administrative Services Managers 130 jobs · $130,100
  15. 15. Industrial Production Managers 120 jobs · $119,550
  16. 16. Architectural and Engineering Managers 110 jobs · $165,380
  17. 17. Human Resources Managers 110 jobs · $129,290
  18. 18. Facilities Managers 100 jobs · $128,460

Occupations Tracked

333

with wage data

Published-Row Mean

$61,574

employment-weighted, 330 complete rows

Top Salary

$451,910

Physicians, All Other

Cost of Living

88.8

11% below US avg

Price-level adjustment: Dividing the derived published-row mean of $61,574 by the metro RPP gives $69,324 on a national-price basis. This is not an after-tax income or a personal cost-of-living result.

Top-pay occupations in Topeka, KS, 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 $111,870
2 Physicians, All Other $451,910
3 Nurse Practitioners $132,740
4 Medical and Health Services Managers $109,490
5 Sales Managers $154,970
6 Financial Managers $145,950
7 Computer and Information Systems Managers $143,320
8 Pharmacists $140,820
9 Chief Executives $140,330
10 Electrical Engineers $125,330
11 Construction Managers $123,180
12 Marketing Managers $205,310
13 Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products $157,760
14 Administrative Services Managers $130,100
15 Industrial Production Managers $119,550
16 Architectural and Engineering Managers $165,380
17 Human Resources Managers $129,290
18 Facilities Managers $128,460
19 Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists $162,810
20 Dentists, General $164,670
21 Physician Assistants $129,800
22 Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates $148,910
23 Purchasing Managers $144,440
24 Public Relations Managers $121,880
25 Optometrists $130,930

Lowest Paying Jobs in Topeka, KS

Other BLS Wage Areas in KS

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 KS. Same-state wage areas above stay geographic; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on employment-weighted published-row mean wage ($61,574 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 Topeka, KS wage reading?
The employment-weighted published-row mean across 330 occupation rows is $61,574/year (BLS OEWS May 2025). BEA RPP 88.8 puts local prices 11% below the US average, so the same mean reads as $69,324 in national-price terms. Page lists 333 occupations with a published median — a different denominator. The top-tier median average of the 25 highest-paying rows is $152,768.
What is the highest paying job in Topeka, KS?
The highest paying occupation in Topeka, KS is Physicians, All Other with a median salary of $451,910/year. The second highest is Marketing Managers at $205,310/year.
What jobs pay the least in Topeka, KS?
The lowest paying occupation in Topeka, KS is Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers with a median salary of $22,290/year according to BLS data.
Which federal tables feed Topeka, KS'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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