2005 Occupational Pay Comparisons Among Metropolitan Areas — 2006-09-28

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor produces relative occupational pay comparisons between metropolitan areas and the United States as a whole. Using data from the National Compensation Survey (NCS), pay relatives--a means of assessing relative pay differences--have been prepared for 2005 for each of the 9 major occupational groups within 78 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), as well as averaged across all occupations for each area. (See table 1.) In addition, for the first time, similar area-to-area comparisons have been calculated for all 78 areas and soon will be available on the BLS website at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/payrel.htm. The pay relative in 2005 for workers in construction and extraction occupations in the San Francisco MSA was 123, meaning the pay in San Francisco in that occupational group averaged 23 percent more than the national average pay for that occupational group.