STARTING METRO
Chicago
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
$68,280
median annual pay · OEWS May 2025
2,290existing jobs
Employment estimate in this occupation
CAREER MARKETS
Find where your work goes further.
Compare typical pay, purchasing power and existing jobs for the same career across metro areas.
Choose the same career in two metro areas.
50 selected U.S. metro areas. Existing employment, not current openings.
YOUR COMPARISON · Chicago & Portland
Chicago's annual-pay lead grows after regional prices
Chicago's published annual median is $4,050 higher than Portland's ($68,280 versus $64,230). After regional-price adjustment, Chicago's estimate is approximately $5,000 higher than Portland's. Chicago has the larger estimated job base in this occupation: 2,290 existing jobs versus 420 in Portland. Employment is a job-stock estimate, not a count of openings.
Structural metal fabricators and fitters · OEWS May 2025 pay and 2024 regional prices. A larger job base doesn’t measure current openings or your chances of being hired. Regional price adjustments are approximate, not take-home pay or a personal budget.
The numbers behind the comparison
Structural metal fabricators and fitters · Nominal pay before taxes · Metro areas, not city limits
Explore the metro profile
COMPARISON METRO
Portland
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA
$64,230
median annual pay · OEWS May 2025
420existing jobs
Employment estimate in this occupation
What if local prices change the picture?
A separate purchasing-power lens, using OEWS May 2025 pay and 2024 local prices.
ChicagoAbout $65,900at U.S. average prices · approximate
PortlandAbout $60,900at U.S. average prices · approximate
After regional-price adjustment, Chicago's estimate is approximately $5,000 higher than Portland's.
Approximate purchasing power, not take-home pay or a personal budget. Taxes, benefits, personal rent and moving costs aren’t included.
KEEP YOUR OPTIONS OPEN
Find a market worth a closer look.
47 of 50 metros have a published annual median for this career.
| Metro area | Median pay | Existing jobs | Price-adjusted payApproximate · 2024 prices | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San DiegoSan Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $68,350 | 690 | About $61,100 | |
| ChicagoHomeChicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $68,280 | 2,290 | About $65,900 | |
| SeattleSeattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $65,980 | 520 | About $59,400 | |
| San FranciscoSan Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $65,500 | 230 | About $56,700 | |
| BostonBoston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | $64,350 | 440 | About $59,400 | |
| PortlandPortland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | $64,230 | 420 | About $60,900 |
Sorted on one measure. No overall “best city” score. Price-adjusted figures are rounded to the nearest $100; sorting uses the underlying estimates.
KNOW WHAT YOU’RE COMPARING
Real data. Clear limits.
Typical annual pay in Chicago is $68,280, 33.0% above the U.S. median for this career. U.S. median: $51,330 · OEWS May 2025.
Pay & job base
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics · OEWS May 2025. Annual medians and employment estimates for the same occupation and metro. Existing employment, not vacancies. OEWS excludes the self-employed.
Local price context
BEA Regional Price Parities · 2024, all items, U.S. = 100. Exact metro-code matches. These are broad average price levels, not a personal cost-of-living estimate.
What to bring to the decision
Compare actual offers, your housing budget, licensing, benefits and the people you want nearby. Pay and job-base estimates help frame questions; they don’t predict your outcome.
Detailed calculation
Chicago: $68,280 ÷ (103.595 ÷ 100) = 65910.52 U.S.-price-level dollars.
Portland: $64,230 ÷ (105.421 ÷ 100) = 60927.14 U.S.-price-level dollars.
Difference before rounding to the nearest $100: -4983.38 U.S.-price-level dollars (Portland minus Chicago).
Portland's annual median is $4,050 (5.9%) lower than Chicago's. Portland has 1,870 (81.7%) fewer estimated jobs in this occupation. Employment is a job-stock estimate, not a count of openings.
Median pay ÷ (BEA Regional Price Parity ÷ 100). This is a rough price-level comparison across places, not take-home pay or your household’s budget. Wages and prices refer to different years. Taxes, benefits, personal rent and moving costs aren’t included.
Coverage, missing values and the calculation
The 50 metro areas covered here are a selected set, not every U.S. metro. A career may be missing or have suppressed or top-coded wages. Those values stay unknown and aren’t ranked as zero. A metro’s full name and CBSA definition determine the geographic match.
Price-adjusted pay = nominal median annual pay ÷ (all-items Regional Price Parity ÷ 100). It puts metros on a common price scale using different years of data; it does not adjust for inflation between those years. National comparisons use the occupation’s median from the same OEWS release. Local specialization is not estimated from incompatible sources.