Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA Salaries
Local wages where BEA prices sit below the US average (RPP 87.1) - BLS OEWS May 2025
Observed metro pay change
What changed, BLS OEWS 2024–2025
- BLS's published All Occupations median in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA moved from $46,580 in May 2024 to $47,430 in May 2025 (+1.8%).
- Across the 393 metros priced in both releases, the median place changed +3.1%.
- Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA sits -1.3 pp behind that median, nominal dollars, no price deflator applied.
Based on wage level, year-over-year wage growth, and regional-price-parity-adjusted purchasing power from BLS and BEA sources, not job availability, industry mix, or day-to-day livability.
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand shows the widest metro-area vs national median gap in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand publishes $47,440 here versus $40,240 nationally (+17.9%; 2,920metro-area jobs). Next is Retail Salespersons at $31,270 locally versus $35,410 nationally (-11.7%).
- Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand$47,440 in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA sits 17.9% above the national Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand median of $40,240 (2,920 published local jobs).
- Retail Salespersons$31,270 in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA sits 11.7% below the national Retail Salespersons median of $35,410 (2,460 published local jobs).
- Fast Food and Counter Workers$27,820 in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA sits 10.8% below the national Fast Food and Counter Workers median of $31,200 (2,500 published local jobs).
- Cashiers$29,320 in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA sits 10.8% below the national Cashiers median of $32,880 (2,340 published local jobs).
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand and the other occupations above are descriptive OEWS endpoints for Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA; they are not findings about taxes, employers, or worker experience.
BLS OEWS metro wage desk
MSA 47940 · Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA $56K mean
MEAN-LOW · RPP-QUIET · OCC-MID · TOP-LEAD · EMP-MIX · TREND-INLINE · PHOTO-FINISH · BOOK-FULL
- MEAN-LOW #335/528
- RPP-QUIET 87.1
- OCC-MID 308 occs
- TOP-LEAD Physicians, Al… · $295K
- EMP-MIX Financial Ma…
- TREND-INLINE -1.3 pp
- PHOTO-FINISH Fayetteville, NC
- BOOK-FULL 305 rows · May 2025
Read with Fayetteville, NC (+$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 Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA
Where Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA already employs the upper wage tier
Financial Managers and Medical and Health Services Managers lead published employment inside Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA's top-pay sample, order follows OEWS job counts, not median wage.
- 1. Financial Managers 370 jobs · $125,690
- 2. Medical and Health Services Managers 340 jobs · $103,330
- 3. Software Developers 280 jobs · $113,970
- 4. Nurse Practitioners 260 jobs · $126,330
- 5. Postsecondary Teachers, All Other 250 jobs · $103,680
- 6. Industrial Production Managers 170 jobs · $102,810
- 7. Pharmacists 160 jobs · $138,690
- 8. Lawyers 160 jobs · $126,570
- 9. Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary 160 jobs · $103,180
- 10. Sales Managers 150 jobs · $125,050
- 11. Computer Occupations, All Other 140 jobs · $107,660
- 12. Family Medicine Physicians 130 jobs · $287,990
- 13. Computer and Information Systems Managers 120 jobs · $132,210
- 14. Chief Executives 110 jobs · $199,010
- 15. Physicians, All Other 90 jobs · $295,200
- 16. First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives 90 jobs · $106,660
- 17. Human Resources Managers 80 jobs · $125,970
- 18. Marketing Managers 80 jobs · $114,940
Occupations Tracked
308
with wage data
Published-Row Mean
$55,537
employment-weighted, 305 complete rows
Top Salary
$295,200
Physicians, All Other
Cost of Living
87.1
13% below US avg
Top-pay occupations in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA, 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 Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA
| Occupation | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Ushers, Lobby Attendants, and Ticket Takers | $21,390 |
| Waiters and Waitresses | $21,490 |
| Bartenders | $21,540 |
| Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers | $23,190 |
| Amusement and Recreation Attendants | $26,400 |
| Library Assistants, Clerical | $26,790 |
| Childcare Workers | $27,580 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | $27,820 |
| Food Servers, Nonrestaurant | $28,140 |
| Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop | $28,190 |
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 ($55,537 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
What does the lower price level do to Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA wage reading? ▼
What is the highest paying job in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA? ▼
What jobs pay the least in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA? ▼
Which federal tables feed Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA's wage and price figures? ▼
Related federal data
What to do with this data
How to use Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA wage figures in a real decision
- Physicians, All Other leads published medians in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA at $295,200/year; open the occupation for percentile bands and state rows. Physicians, All Other
- The employment-weighted published-row mean of $55,537 adjusts to about $63,794 on a national-price basis at BEA RPP 87.1. Salary vs cost of living
- Compare this metropolitan statistical area against the statewide occupation table for IA before treating one geography as the other. State wage page
BLS OEWS estimates reflect the May 2025 reference period; small occupation-area cells can be suppressed, and figures are not employer offers.
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.