2006 Occupational Pay Comparisons Among Metropolitan Areas — 2007-09-26

Average pay in the San Francisco metropolitan area was 19 percent above the national average in 2006, the highest among the 78 metropolitan areas studied by the National Compensation Survey (NCS), the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. In contrast, pay was lowest in the Brownsville, Texas metropolitan area with a pay relative of 78, meaning Brownsville workers earned an average of 78 cents for every dollar earned by workers nationwide. Using data from the NCS, pay relatives--a means of assessing pay differences--are available for each of the 9 major occupational groups within 78 metropolitan areas, as well as averaged across all occupations for each area. (See table 1.) Table A below lists the five highest and five lowest paying metropolitan areas among those studied in the NCS. In addition, similar area-to-area comparisons have been calculated for all 78 areas and will soon be available on the BLS website at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/payrel.htm.