How much do Mechanical Engineers make in Rapid City, SD?

Percentile spread

For Mechanical Engineers, the published 10th percentile is $70,590 and the 90th percentile is $136,640. The difference is $66,050, which is 70.1% of the median. Ten percent of measured wages fall below the 10th percentile and ten percent fall above the 90th. How to read a percentile.

The middle half of the distribution, from the 25th percentile at $81,370 to the 75th at $106,920, covers $25,550.

The mean annual wage is $100,000, which sits above the median of $94,180. Median and mean measure different points in the same distribution.

National and state comparison

The Rapid City, SD median is 9.5% lower than the national median of $104,110 for Mechanical Engineers. In 2024 national prices the local median is $105,630, which is 1.5% higher than that same national median. The national figure is already in national prices because the United States parity is 100.

It is 6.6% higher than the South Dakota median of $88,380.

Price-adjusted pay

The 2024 all-items regional price parity for Rapid City, SD is 89.160, with the United States at 100. The Bureau of Economic Analysis released those parities on February 19, 2026. Dividing the May 2025 median of $94,180 by that parity and multiplying by 100 puts Mechanical Engineers at $105,630 in national prices. The wage year and the price year are different. Compare this wage after prices.

Nearby metros

No other metropolitan area within 200 miles has a published annual median for Mechanical Engineers in the May 2025 tables. A wage from farther away is not filled in. When a wage is not published.

Employment share

Mechanical Engineers accounts for 0.19% of wage-and-salary employment in Rapid City, SD (140 of 73,820). Nationally the occupation is 0.19% of employment (296,810 of 155,495,730). The local share is 0.99 times the national share. That ratio is the location quotient computed from these May 2025 employment counts. It is not copied from the location-quotient column in the BLS bulk file.