Home / Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners / Best Cities Best Cities for Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpenerss Cities ranked by purchasing power — where tool grinders, filers, and sharpenerss get the most value from their salary after accounting for cost of living. A score above 1.00 means better than national average.
How we calculate this: City Score = (Local Salary ÷ National Median) ÷ (Local Cost ÷ National Avg Cost). A score of 1.20 means 20% better purchasing power than average.
# Location Score Raw Salary Adjusted Salary Rent/Income 1 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metro 1.79 $102,390 $89,580 26% 2 Washington State 1.40 $75,190 $70,075 30% 3 Mississippi State 1.31 $55,510 $65,460 19% 4 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI Metro 1.26 $62,790 $63,106 28% 5 Louisiana State 1.25 $56,380 $62,575 22% 6 Ohio State 1.25 $56,690 $62,710 22% 7 Idaho State 1.23 $59,250 $61,399 24% 8 Kansas State 1.20 $54,100 $60,111 23% 9 Missouri State 1.18 $52,540 $59,300 24% 10 Oregon State 1.18 $60,760 $58,990 31% 11 Iowa State 1.16 $51,760 $58,027 22% 12 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metro 1.14 $55,100 $56,921 35% 13 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metro 1.13 $60,760 $56,364 35% 14 Wisconsin State 1.11 $51,240 $55,515 25% 15 South Carolina State 1.09 $50,220 $54,587 30% 16 Indiana State 1.07 $48,700 $53,812 26% 17 Minnesota State 1.06 $51,990 $53,051 30% 18 Massachusetts State 1.04 $56,600 $52,166 48% 19 Montana State 1.03 $49,560 $51,411 27% 20 Nebraska State 1.03 $47,360 $51,760 26% 21 Oklahoma State 1.03 $45,600 $51,525 25% 22 Georgia State 1.00 $46,800 $50,107 36% 23 Kentucky State 1.00 $44,170 $49,910 26% 24 North Carolina State 0.97 $45,790 $48,506 34% 25 Alabama State 0.96 $41,720 $47,899 28% 26 Texas State 0.96 $46,000 $48,117 36% 27 Maine State 0.94 $46,750 $46,844 33% 28 Michigan State 0.94 $43,470 $47,096 31% 29 California State 0.93 $51,300 $46,341 53% 30 New Jersey State 0.91 $49,470 $45,469 44% 31 Arkansas State 0.89 $38,410 $44,508 27% 32 New Hampshire State 0.87 $46,380 $43,755 41% 33 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro 0.85 $44,050 $42,560 43% 34 New York State 0.84 $47,070 $41,840 47% 35 Pennsylvania State 0.81 $39,550 $40,773 39% 36 Tennessee State 0.81 $36,920 $40,350 41% 37 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metro 0.80 $46,580 $39,983 58% 38 Connecticut State 0.74 $39,710 $36,905 47% 39 Virginia State 0.74 $38,370 $37,072 49% 40 Florida State 0.73 $36,880 $36,335 56% 41 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro 0.70 $33,830 $34,805 56% 42 Colorado State 0.64 $33,970 $32,230 65%
Data Sources: Salary: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS). Cost of Living: BEA Regional Price Parities (2024). Rent: HUD Fair Market Rents (FY2025).