Retail Manager Salary in Rancho Cucamonga, CA: Median $44,243 in 2026

Rancho Cucamonga (CA) · COL index 138 · Unemployment 4.0% · Metro pop 180,000 · Rank #27 of 283 for Retail Manager salary

Written by Jere Salmisto, FounderReviewed by CalcFi EditorialLast reviewed Methodology

A Retail Manager in Rancho Cucamonga earns an estimated median of $44,243 per year. That figure starts from the California state-level BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics median[1]($35,970) and scales it by Rancho Cucamonga's composite cost-of-living index of 138 (US = 100). The 10th percentile comes in around $39,655; the 90th percentile reaches $61,291. After federal, California state, and FICA taxes, a single-filer Retail Manager takes home approximately $36,746/year — about $3,062/month or $1,413 every other week.

Compared to the national Retail Manager median of $48,400, Rancho Cucamonga pays -8.6%. Relative to the Rancho Cucamonga median household income of $89,500, a Retail Managersalary runs -50.6%. Local unemployment is 4.0%[3], with an estimated 114 annual Retail Manager openings inferred from metro population share and national employment (1,087,300).

Retail Manager Snapshot — Rancho Cucamonga (2026)

Every row cites a primary public dataset. Rent + home values use Zillow where the metro is in the ZHVI/ZORI coverage set; otherwise ACS + census tract fallbacks.

MetricRancho CucamongaNationalSource
Retail Manager median salary$44,243$48,400[1]
10th percentile$39,655$36,080[1]
90th percentile$61,291$90,200[1]
Annual take-home (single filer)$36,746[8][10]
Median home value (ZHVI)$650,000[5]
Median rent (ZORI)$2,100/mo[5]
HUD Fair Market Rent (2BR)$1,925/mo[6]
Median household income (ACS)$89,500[7]
Cost-of-living index138.0100.0[4]
Unemployment rate4.0%[3]

How Retail Manager Salaries Work in Rancho Cucamonga

City-level wages aren't published directly by BLS for most SOC codes. We build them by anchoring to the California state-level OEWS median ($35,970) and scaling by Rancho Cucamonga's composite cost-of-living index (138)[1][4]. That index combines Census ACS rent, Zillow ZHVI, BLS CPI, and AdvisorSmith / ApartmentAdvisor inputs to produce one number per metro. When BLS publishes a separate metro-level wage (MSA-level OEWS), that takes priority — a handful of large metros including New York, LA, Chicago, and DC have this coverage.

On top of the gross wage, the standard US payroll stack applies: federal income tax using 2025 IRS brackets and the $15,000 single standard deduction[8], FICA (Social Security 6.2% up to $176,100 wage base + Medicare 1.45%)[9], and California state income tax at a 2.1% effective rate ($931/yr on the $44,243 median)[10].

Rancho Cucamonga also sits inside a larger metro labor market where commute patterns, remote-work policies, and adjacent-metro wages compete. Near-national unemployment means a balanced market — employers and candidates negotiate from roughly equal positions. Median household income in the metro is $89,500, which frames what "a good Retail Manager salary" means locally: a $$44,243 wage pays about 49% of the median household income on a single earner.

The deterministic identity: take_home = gross − federal − state − FICA − pre_tax. All math runs client-side; nothing is sent to our servers.

Cost of Living Breakdown — Rancho Cucamonga

Estimated annual expense shares on a $36,746 take-home, using BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey baseline shares scaled to Rancho Cucamonga's COL index of 138. Housing uses the actual median rent.

H Housing (Rent)$25,200/yr (68.6%)
F Food & Groceries$5,415/yr (14.7%)
T Transportation$4,233/yr (11.5%)
M Healthcare$2,865/yr (7.8%)
U Utilities$2,186/yr (5.9%)
S Savings & Other$0/yr (0.0%)

BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey shares[1], scaled by Rancho Cucamonga's COL index of 138[4]. Housing uses actual median rent of $2,100/month.

Salary vs Housing Affordability in Rancho Cucamonga

Renting

Monthly take-home$3,062
Affordable rent (30% rule)$919/mo
Median rent (ZORI)$2,100/mo
Rent-to-income ratio57.0%
VerdictSeverely cost-burdened

Buying

Median home (ZHVI)$650,000
Price-to-income ratio14.7×
20% down payment$130,000
Years to down (20% savings)14.7 yr

At $3,062/mo take-home, the 30% rent rule caps housing at $919/mo. Rancho Cucamonga's typical 1–2BR rent runs $2,100/mo[5] (HUD 2BR FMR: $1,925/mo), making rent severely cost-burdened on a median Retail Manager salary. For homebuyers, the 14.7× price-to-income ratio is stretched — expect DTI friction on FHA / conventional underwriting without a co-borrower.

How Rancho Cucamonga Stacks Up for Retail Managers

#27
Salary rank
of 283 cities
#232
Affordability
rent ÷ income
#257
Purchasing power
salary ÷ COL

Against 283 major US cities: Rancho Cucamonga ranks #27 for nominal Retail Manager salary, #232 for rent affordability, and #257 for overall purchasing power. High cost of living absorbs much of Rancho Cucamonga's nominal wage premium. Retail Managers here often trade pay for lifestyle, proximity to employers, or family roots — consider nearby metros on a salary-to-COL basis.

Nearby Cities — Retail Manager Salary Comparison

Rancho Cucamonga's closest metros, scaled by each city's cost-of-living index. Useful for relocation decisions where commute or remote-work policies allow a neighboring metro trade-off.

CityEst. salaryCOLRentvs CA
Rancho Cucamonga, CA$44,243138$2,100
Los Angeles, CA$83,732173$2,050+89.3%
San Francisco, CA$103,576214$3,498+134.1%
San Jose, CA$95,832198$2,195+116.6%
San Diego, CA$78,892163$2,195+78.3%
Riverside, CA$59,048122$1,750+33.5%

Sources: Census ACS[7], Zillow[5], BEA RPP[4], BLS OEWS[1].

Retail Manager Job Market in Rancho Cucamonga

~114
Est. annual openings
4.0%
Unemployment
180,000
Metro population
-4%
Job growth (24–34)

Rancho Cucamonga has an estimated 114 annual Retail Manageropenings, extrapolated from the metro's share of 1,087,300 national Retail Managers[1]. The 4.0% unemployment rate[3] is near the national average, with steady turnover across most sectors.

About the profession: Retail managers supervise day-to-day operations in stores, overseeing staff, inventory, customer service, and sales performance metrics. Typical entry requirement: high school diploma or associate degree. Projected growth through 2034: -4%[2].

Career Progression & Related Professions in Rancho Cucamonga

Early-career Retail Managers in Rancho Cucamonga start around $39,655, reach the city median ($44,243) after 4–8 years, and hit 90th-percentile territory ($61,291) at senior / specialized levels.

Related service professions in Rancho Cucamonga

Calculators for Retail Managers in Rancho Cucamonga

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Frequently Asked Questions — Retail Manager in Rancho Cucamonga

How much does a Retail Manager make in Rancho Cucamonga, CA?

The estimated median salary for a Retail Manager in Rancho Cucamonga is $44,243/year, scaled from the BLS OEWS California state median ($35,970) by Rancho Cucamonga's composite cost-of-living index of 138 (US = 100). After federal, California state, and FICA taxes, take-home is approximately $36,746/year or $3,062/month.

Can a Retail Manager afford to live in Rancho Cucamonga?

On $3,062/month take-home, the 30% rent rule affords $919/month. Rancho Cucamonga's Zillow ZORI median rent is $2,100/mo, HUD's 2BR Fair Market Rent is $1,925/mo. The rent-to-income ratio works out to 57.0%, making housing severely cost-burdened for a Retail Manager at the local median. Home-buyers face 14.7× price-to-income, needing roughly 14.7 years to save a 20% down payment at a 20% savings rate.

How much tax does a Retail Manager pay in Rancho Cucamonga?

On $44,243 gross, a Retail Manager in Rancho Cucamonga pays approximately $3,181 in federal income tax (7.2% effective), $931 in California state income tax (2.1% effective), and $3,385 in FICA (Social Security + Medicare). Total effective rate: 16.9%. Some California cities levy local income taxes in addition; check your municipal DoR before filing.

How does Rancho Cucamonga rank for Retail Manager salaries vs other cities?

Rancho Cucamonga ranks #27 out of 283 tracked metros for nominal Retail Manager salary, #232 for rent affordability (rent-to-income), and #257 for purchasing power (salary ÷ COL). The high-purchasing-power cities tend to be mid-size metros with strong local employers and moderate housing costs; the low-ranked cities trade high nominal pay for steep rents.

What is the cost-of-living breakdown for a Retail Manager in Rancho Cucamonga?

On $36,746 take-home, a reasonable baseline budget for Rancho Cucamonga looks like: housing $25,200/yr (68.6%); food $5,415/yr; transportation $4,233/yr; healthcare $2,865/yr; utilities $2,186/yr; savings + discretionary $0/yr. Numbers use BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey shares scaled to Rancho Cucamonga's COL index of 138 and the city's actual median rent.

What's the Retail Manager job market like in Rancho Cucamonga?

Rancho Cucamonga's unemployment rate is 4.0% across the metro of 180,000. Estimated annual Retail Manager openings: ~114 (extrapolated from 1,087,300 nationally employed and the metro's population share). The market is near national averages with steady turnover.

Do Rancho Cucamonga employers pay above or below the California median for Retail Managers?

Not consistently — Rancho Cucamonga's estimated Retail Manager median of $44,243 is 8.6% below the national median. The trade-off is usually lower rents and (in some cases) lower state taxes, which can leave real purchasing power competitive.

Methodology — How we compute this page

Wage estimate. The Rancho Cucamonga median is derived from the California state-level BLS OEWS median ($35,970), scaled by Rancho Cucamonga's composite cost-of-living index of 138. When BLS publishes a direct MSA-level wage for the occupation, that takes priority over the scaled state median. Percentile bands inherit the same scale factor.

Housing + rent. Median home value uses Zillow ZHVI; median rent prefers Zillow ZORI and falls back to Census ACS median gross rent. HUD Fair Market Rents (50th-percentile 2BR) are shown where HUD publishes the metro. Price-to-income and rent-to-income ratios use the estimated Retail Managermedian (not the city's overall median household income) — to reflect the specific role-vs-city affordability picture.

Tax math. Federal tax uses 2025 IRS brackets and the $15,000 single standard deduction. FICA is Social Security 6.2% up to the $176,100 wage base + Medicare 1.45% (+ 0.9% Additional Medicare above $200,000). State tax uses California's 2026 brackets from the state DoR (mirrored via Tax Foundation where the DoR's publication is paywalled or split). Local income taxes (e.g. NYC, Portland-OR supplemental, OH municipal) are NOT included — check your municipal authority for specifics.

Cost of living. The 138index is the composite used by CalcFi's /data/cities.ts, which merges Census ACS, BLS CPI shelter, Zillow ZORI, and commercial COL estimators. The COL-adjusted salary on this page assumes the statewide RPP = 112.2(BEA) approximates the state's purchasing power; cities are then scaled relative to that.

Refresh cadence. BLS OEWS releases annually (typically March); BEA RPP releases annually in December; IRS brackets adjust in October; Zillow ZHVI/ZORI updates monthly; HUD FMR publishes annually in August for the upcoming fiscal year. The dateModified shown above auto-bumps to the most recent retrievedAt on any sourced value the page consumes.

Known limits. Metro-level OEWS coverage is partial — only ~50 large MSAs have separately published occupation wages; the rest inherit state-level estimates scaled by COL. Rent and home data may trail the real-time market by 1–3 months (Zillow) or 8–12 months (ACS). Rankings are capped to the city set in our dataset (283 metros), not every incorporated US city.

Sources

Every number on this page cites a primary public dataset. Last reviewed (auto-bumped on the next ISR refresh after an ETL run).

  1. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) — state-level occupational wages www.bls.gov/oes. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
  2. BLS Employment Projections — 2024–34 occupational growth rates www.bls.gov/emp. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
  3. BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics — metro-level unemployment rate www.bls.gov/lau. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
  4. Bureau of Economic Analysis — Regional Price Parities (state + metro) www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
  5. Zillow Research — ZHVI (home value index) + ZORI (observed rent index) www.zillow.com/research/data. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
  6. HUD Fair Market Rents — 50th-percentile 2-bedroom FY www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
  7. U.S. Census Bureau — American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates, metro level www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
  8. Internal Revenue Service — Federal individual income tax brackets and standard deductions www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-17. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
  9. Social Security Administration — OASDI / Medicare contribution and wage-base rules www.ssa.gov. Retrieved 2026-04-19.
  10. California Department of Revenue — 2026 individual income tax brackets (accessed via Tax Foundation mirror) taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-income-tax-rates. Retrieved 2026-04-19.

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