Sure, N.J. pays well compared with other states, but when you factor in the cost of living#8230

Eric Strauss//October 24, 2014

Rasmussen College has created a new salary-comparison tool that factors in cost of living, adjusting a particular profession’s wage to reflect the state where the job is done.For New Jersey, the results aren’t always pretty.

Crunching numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Rasmussen found that the average salary in New Jersey is $40,250. That ranks eighth in the nation, one spot behind neighboring New York.

But…

Adjusted for cost of living, the average New Jersey resident’s salary is worth only $35,276 — a difference of 12.4 percent that drops the state all the way to 25^th place overall.

Washington, D.C., ranks first in both average salary and adjusted average salary, at $63,680 and $53,875, respectively.

Among some popular professions, New Jersey continues to see adjusted salaries coming in well below their average counterparts. And even when average salaries are near the top of the 50 states and District of Columbia, they plummet in the adjusted rankings.

For example, New Jersey surgeons earned the fourth-highest average pay in the nation, at $247,210. But when cost of living is factored in, they make only $216,661. That 12.4 percent difference may not seem too egregious, but it is enough to rank New Jersey 42^nd overall — ninth from the bottom.

The pattern continues among other professions, such as:

Chief executives: $197,740 average (sixth overall), $173,304 adjusted (20^th overall)
Lawyers: $115,180 average (13^th overall), $100,974 adjusted (23^rd overall)
Financial analysts: $81,250 average (10^th overall), $71,209 adjusted (30^th overall)
Elementary teachers: $62,440 average (eighth overall), $54,724 adjusted (21^st overall)
Reporters: $36,760 average (12^th overall), $32,217 adjusted (34^th overall)
Retail salespeople: $22,350 average (eighth overall), $19,588 adjusted (47^th overall)