Mechanical Engineers: Rapid City, SD vs San Jose-Sunnyval... pay

Percentile	Published wages	Rapid City, SD	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
10th	Rapid City, SD$70,590San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA$105,400	$70,590	$105,400
25th	Rapid City, SD$81,370San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA$134,460	$81,370	$134,460

Place	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Location quotient	Employment RSE
Rapid City, SD	140Jobs per 1,000: 1.96 Location quotient: 1.02	1.96	1.02	18.5%
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	5,540Jobs per 1,000: 4.88 Location quotient: 2.56	4.88	2.56	4.2%

Median	Rapid City, SD$94,180San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA$168,030	$94,180	$168,030

75th	Rapid City, SD$106,920San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA$201,630	$106,920	$201,630

90th	Rapid City, SD$136,640San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA$217,530	$136,640	$217,530

Start with the answer

Mechanical Engineers pay in Rapid City, SD and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

The May 2025 BLS OEWS median for Mechanical Engineers is $94,180 per year in Rapid City, SD. It is $168,030 per year in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA. Rapid City, SD is 44.0% below San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA on the published median.

Both rows use SOC 17-2141 and the same annual wage metric. Median means the middle of each area's published wage spread. It is not one worker's pay. The larger median is not proof that one place gives a better job or a better result. It is one wage fact from one source period.

BLS lists 140 wage and salary jobs in Rapid City, SD and 5,540 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA. Those are survey job counts, not open posts. Read pay, job scale, local share, and price level as separate facts before you make a choice.

Evidence: bls-oews-may-2025 · Rule: same-soc-same-metric-pair · nominal-median-gap · employment-not-openings

Pay range

Compare the full Mechanical Engineers wage ladder

A median can hide a wide range. The 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile points show more of each area's spread. A percentile is a rank point. It is not a career stage. The 10th point does not mean new-worker pay. The 90th point does not mean a wage that comes after a set number of years.

The lower half can differ from the upper half. One area can lead at the median and trail at another point. Read each field against the same field in the other area. Do not compare one area's 75th percentile with the other area's median. That would answer a different question.

A posted job range can sit below, across, or above these marks. That does not make the post wrong. A listing can differ by employer, level, hours, field, or work rules. Keep the listing tied to that employer. Keep the BLS range tied to the whole role-place row.

10th percentile: Rapid City, SD is $70,590 per year; San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA is $105,400 per year. Rapid City, SD is 33.0% below San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA at this point.
25th percentile: Rapid City, SD is $81,370 per year; San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA is $134,460 per year. Rapid City, SD is 39.5% below San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA at this point.
Median: Rapid City, SD is $94,180 per year; San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA is $168,030 per year. Rapid City, SD is 44.0% below San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA at this point.
75th percentile: Rapid City, SD is $106,920 per year; San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA is $201,630 per year. Rapid City, SD is 47.0% below San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA at this point.
90th percentile: Rapid City, SD is $136,640 per year; San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA is $217,530 per year. Rapid City, SD is 37.2% below San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA at this point.

Evidence: bls-oews-may-2025 · Rule: paired-percentile-fields · same-field-comparison · posted-pay-separation

Shape of pay

Mean and median tell two parts of the Mechanical Engineers story

Rapid City, SD has a mean of $100,000 per year and a median of $94,180. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA has a mean of $165,920 per year and a median of $168,030. Mean adds all wage values and splits the total by the number of jobs behind the estimate.

Rapid City, SD's mean is 6.2% above its median on the same published median. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA's mean is 1.3% below its median on the same published median. The gaps show that each wage spread has a shape. They do not explain why the shape differs.

Use median for the middle. Use mean to see how the full set pulls. Use percentiles to see more of the spread. None of the three is a pay promise. A person, team, or listing can sit far from all three for reasons that are outside these BLS rows.

Evidence: bls-oews-may-2025 · Rule: paired-mean-median · mean-median-gap · no-causal-inference

Job scale

How the two Mechanical Engineers job bases differ

Rapid City, SD has 140 estimated Mechanical Engineers jobs. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA has 5,540. The larger count shows a larger covered job base in this source. It does not show more open roles, faster hiring, or a better chance for one applicant.

Rapid City, SD has 1.96 Mechanical Engineers jobs per 1,000 local jobs. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA has 4.88 per 1,000. This rate helps compare places of different size. It is not a job-post rate and does not use the MeritLog catalog.

The employment RSE is 18.5% in Rapid City, SD and 4.2% in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA. RSE means relative standard error. It is a survey precision flag. It is not the chance that the job count or one person's pay is right.

Evidence: bls-oews-may-2025 · Rule: paired-employment · paired-jobs-per-thousand · employment-rse-field-scope

Local share

Where Mechanical Engineers takes a larger share of jobs

The location quotient is 1.02 in Rapid City, SD and 2.56 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA. A value of 1 means the role has the same share of local jobs as it has across the nation. A value above 1 means the local share is larger. A value below 1 means it is smaller.

Rapid City, SD's quotient is 60.2% below San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA's. That gap is about the job mix. It is not a wage gap, a job-count gap, or a growth claim.

Read location quotient with employment. A small place can have a high share and few jobs. A large place can have many jobs and a share near the national mark. Then read pay as its own field. The three measures do not form one score.

Evidence: bls-oews-may-2025 · Rule: paired-location-quotient · quotient-gap · metric-separation

BEA price view

How price levels differ between Rapid City, SD and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

BEA's 2024 all-items price index is 89.2 in Rapid City, SD and 110.4 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA. The U.S. level is 100. A higher number means the broad local price level is higher than the national mark. It does not say a place is good or bad.

Housing is 72.6 in Rapid City, SD and 211.9 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA. Goods are 95.5 and 105.2. Utilities are 79.1 and 156.7. Other services are 91.9 and 100.3. The parts can move in different ways.

The wage period is May 2025. The price period is 2024. WageScope keeps those clocks visible. It uses the all-items index for one clear proxy. It does not mix BEA prices into the BLS source row, and it does not claim the two releases describe the exact same month.

Evidence: bea-rpp-2024 · bls-oews-may-2025 · Rule: paired-rpp-fields · rpp-us-baseline · source-period-separation

Price-level proxy

Compare the medians in national-price dollars

WageScope divides Rapid City, SD's $94,180 median by 89.2 divided by 100. The result is $105,630 per year. It divides San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA's $168,030 median by 110.4 divided by 100. That result is $152,169 per year.

Rapid City, SD's proxy is 30.6% below San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA's. The nominal gap is 44.0%. The order can stay the same or change after the price-level step. Both results must keep their labels.

The proxy is a narrow math tool. It is not take-home pay. It does not add taxes, benefits, household size, debt, commute, schools, safety, climate, or taste. It does not set a wage target. Use it to see how one broad price index changes the wage view, then check your own costs outside WageScope.

Evidence: bls-oews-may-2025 · bea-rpp-2024 · meritlog-bounded-comparison-v1 · Rule: price-level-adjusted-formula · nominal-adjusted-gap-separation · proxy-limits

Same-proxy pay

What equal price-level pay would look like in the other place

$94,180 per year in Rapid City, SD has the same national-price-dollar proxy as $116,640 per year in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA. The math keeps Rapid City, SD's proxy fixed, then applies San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA's all-items price index.

$168,030 per year in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA has the same proxy as $135,674 per year in Rapid City, SD. This reverse view is useful because the answer depends on which wage you start with. It is not a claim about an offer in either place.

Equivalent nominal pay uses one broad price measure. It does not know what a person buys. It does not know rent, family size, debt, taxes, travel, benefits, or savings. Treat the result as a clean source-backed comparison, not a full move plan or a number an employer must match.

Evidence: bls-oews-may-2025 · bea-rpp-2024 · meritlog-bounded-comparison-v1 · Rule: equivalent-nominal-value-forward · equivalent-nominal-value-reverse · proxy-limits

Data care

Check the survey marks before you use the gap

The mean-wage RSE is 5.4% in Rapid City, SD and 1.8% in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA. The employment RSE is 18.5% and 4.2%. RSE is a precision flag for the field it sits beside. It is not a score for the whole page.

BLS does not publish the same RSE field for the median and each percentile. WageScope does not move a mean RSE to the median. It does not use an employment RSE as a wage care mark. Each value stays tied to its source field. Missing or top-coded values also keep their source state.

A later BLS or BEA release can change the result. MeritLog checks the official source clocks before promotion. The page cannot call its data current when a newer complete release is waiting for review. Current job cards have their own seen date and do not make the government data newer.

Evidence: bls-oews-may-2025 · Rule: paired-rse-field-scope · no-rse-transfer · independent-source-freshness

Use the result

A short check list for Rapid City, SD and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Start with the same Mechanical Engineers wage field. Then read the full percentile spread. Check job count, jobs per 1,000, and location quotient. Add the 2024 all-items and housing price levels. Read the national-price-dollar proxy with its limits. Keep the BLS and BEA dates in view.

Next, inspect one current employer-title match in each place when an exact public place match exists. A job post can show work level, hours, location rules, and pay that the BLS row cannot. The post is dated employer evidence. It does not change the survey median or prove a broad trend.

Last, use your own facts. Compare the job needs with work you have done and can support. A wage gap cannot show fit. A price-level gap cannot show fit. A job count cannot show fit. MeritLog's résumé path starts only after you choose a listing and confirm the work facts you want to use.

Evidence: bls-oews-may-2025 · bea-rpp-2024 · meritlog-public-job-boundary-v1 · Rule: comparison-checklist · job-source-separation · confirmed-resume-evidence

Limits

What this Mechanical Engineers comparison does not decide

The page does not choose Rapid City, SD or San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA for you. It does not say what one worker earns. It does not promise a job, offer, raise, or move result. It does not say why the medians differ. It does not turn the larger wage, job count, quotient, or proxy into a place score.

The comparison leaves out people who work for themselves and other work outside the OEWS scope. It does not add taxes, take-home pay, benefits, stock, bonus pay, hours, travel, remote work, or a household budget. Current listings are separate and can be empty even when the government rows are complete.

Use this page for a bounded choice. Compare the same May 2025 BLS role and metric across two exact areas. Add the separate 2024 BEA price view. Inspect dated employer-title matches. Then build a résumé from facts you have confirmed. Keep each source tied to the question it can answer.

Evidence: bls-oews-may-2025 · bea-rpp-2024 · meritlog-public-job-boundary-v1 · Rule: no-place-choice · no-personal-pay-claim · source-purpose-separation

Mechanical Engineers: Rapid City, SD vs San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Same occupation, same annual wage metric

The winner can change when local prices differ

Housing and all-items indexes explain the adjustment

Equivalent nominal pay, using price levels only

Employment scale and local concentration

Compare another occupation or pair

Mechanical Engineers: Rapid City, SD and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA guide

Mechanical Engineers in Rapid City, SD and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA: common questions

Compare Mechanical Engineers listings by place

Occupation-wide matches, shown once

No precise employer-title matches right now.

Current jobs

Tailor for a real Mechanical Engineers job, not a generic wage number.

Mechanical Engineers pay in Rapid City, SD and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Compare the full Mechanical Engineers wage ladder

Mean and median tell two parts of the Mechanical Engineers story

How the two Mechanical Engineers job bases differ

Where Mechanical Engineers takes a larger share of jobs

How price levels differ between Rapid City, SD and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Compare the medians in national-price dollars

What equal price-level pay would look like in the other place

Check the survey marks before you use the gap

A short check list for Rapid City, SD and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

What this Mechanical Engineers comparison does not decide

Compare Mechanical Engineers listings by place

Occupation-wide matches, shown once

No precise employer-title matches right now.

Privacy choices

Mechanical Engineers: Rapid City, SD vs San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Same occupation, same annual wage metric

The winner can change when local prices differ

Housing and all-items indexes explain the adjustment

Equivalent nominal pay, using price levels only

Employment scale and local concentration

Compare another occupation or pair

Mechanical Engineers: Rapid City, SD and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA guide

Mechanical Engineers in Rapid City, SD and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA: common questions

Compare Mechanical Engineers listings by place

Occupation-wide matches, shown once

No precise employer-title matches right now.

Current jobs

Tailor for a real Mechanical Engineers job, not a generic wage number.

Mechanical Engineers pay in Rapid City, SD and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Compare the full Mechanical Engineers wage ladder

Mean and median tell two parts of the Mechanical Engineers story

How the two Mechanical Engineers job bases differ

Where Mechanical Engineers takes a larger share of jobs

How price levels differ between Rapid City, SD and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Compare the medians in national-price dollars

What equal price-level pay would look like in the other place

Check the survey marks before you use the gap

A short check list for Rapid City, SD and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

What this Mechanical Engineers comparison does not decide

Compare Mechanical Engineers listings by place

Occupation-wide matches, shown once

No precise employer-title matches right now.