Business & site selection
Best low-cost US manufacturing metros
Cheap labor, cheap power, and a light corporate tax, weighted for a plant.
Siting a plant is a labor, energy, and tax equation. These metros (75k+ residents) score best on low warehouse wages, cheap commercial power, and a light corporate tax.
Published by WhereToHQ research. Calculated from committed source data with no generated editorial text.
What the ranking shows
- Abilene, TX ranks first after the weighted criteria; its wage: warehouse worker is $34,200.
- Across the 15 published entries, wage: warehouse worker ranges from $34,180 to $35,620. The other columns show tradeoffs that the headline order cannot capture.
| # | City | Wage: Warehouse worker | Commercial electricity | Corporate income tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abilene, TX128k | $34,200 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
| 2 | Wichita Falls, TX103k | $34,180 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
| 3 | El Paso, TX680k | $34,400 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
| 4 | Brownsville, TX189k | $34,680 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
| 5 | McAllen, TX145k | $35,080 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
| 6 | Tyler, TX109k | $34,960 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
| 7 | Edinburg, TX105k | $35,080 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
| 8 | Mission, TX87k | $35,080 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
| 9 | Pharr, TX80k | $35,080 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
| 10 | Laredo, TX258k | $35,410 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
| 11 | Amarillo, TX202k | $35,350 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
| 12 | College Station, TX125k | $35,210 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
| 13 | San Angelo, TX100k | $35,260 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
| 14 | Bryan, TX88k | $35,210 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
| 15 | Lubbock, TX265k | $35,620 | 8.6¢/kWh | 0% |
Ranked from public data we track (US Census/ACS, BLS, EIA, FEMA, NOAA, Tax Foundation) and recomputed on every data refresh. Figures are estimates for comparison, not advice; open any city to see all facets.
Candidate rules: 75,000 or more residents. Ranking rule: weighted score using Wage: Warehouse worker (4), Commercial electricity (4), Corporate income tax (3).
WhereToHQ loads at most the 500 largest eligible national candidates, or 300 candidates for a state list, before applying the published rules. Missing values are excluded from a direct sort or hard filter. In a weighted score, an unknown value is neutral rather than favorable.