Where Film Pay Goes Furthest

This table ranks all 30 metro areas by cost-of-living-adjusted film-related annual wage, showing where film workers’ pay goes furthest after local living costs are considered.

¹ Real-Pay Rank orders metro areas by adjusted annual wage, where No. 1 means film-related wages go furthest after local cost of living is considered.
² Nominal-Pay Rank orders metro areas by unadjusted annual wage before applying the cost-of-living adjustment.
³ Nominal Annual Wage is the average annual mean wage across the selected film-related occupations reported by BLS OEWS for each metro area.
⁴ Adjusted Annual Wage represents estimated purchasing power after local cost of living is considered. It is not take-home pay and excludes taxes, benefits, union dues, and differences in project availability.
⁵ Cost of Living vs. U.S. Average is based on the C2ER Cost of Living Index, where 100 represents the U.S. average. Values shown as “below average” indicate lower-than-average living costs, while values shown as “above average” indicate higher-than-average living costs.
Rankings are based on unrounded adjusted annual wages; rounded values may appear identical.
‡ indicates the wage estimate is based on fewer than all six core film-related occupations reported for that metro.
See more in methodology.
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