Los Angeles Metro Salaries: Entertainment, Tech, and Healthcare

The Los Angeles metro area is the second-largest labor market in the United States — and one of the most economically diverse. Entertainment, aerospace, healthcare, tech, and a massive logistics/trade sector coexist in a metro that spans LA County, Orange County, and surrounding communities.

Entertainment and Media

Los Angeles is the undisputed global capital of entertainment. Film studios, streaming services (Netflix's HQ, Disney, Warner Bros.), music labels, and gaming companies create high demand for creative, technical, and business talent. Union wages in entertainment — WGA, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE — can push top earners well above the BLS medians for their occupational classifications.

Tech and Aerospace

Silicon Beach — the tech cluster in Santa Monica, Culver City, and Venice — houses major Snapchat, Google, and Amazon operations. Aerospace manufacturing in El Segundo (Boeing, Northrop, SpaceX) provides significant engineering employment. Together these sectors lift software developer and engineering wages toward Bay Area levels.

Healthcare

Cedars-Sinai, UCLA Health, and Kaiser's Southern California operations are among the largest employers in the metro. Registered nurses in the LA metro earn wages at or near the top of the national distribution, driven by California's union environment and nurse-to-patient ratio regulations.

Browse LA Metro Wages

Explore all occupation wages for the Los Angeles metro on WageDepth.