Technical Contact: (202) 691-6199 NCSinfo@bls.gov 

Media Contact: (202) 691-5902 For Release: 10:00 AM EDT 

Internet Address: www.bls.gov/ncs Friday, July 24, 2009 

(This news release was reissued on Wednesday, May 26, 2010, to remove table asterisks that have 

incorrectly indicated statistically significant differences between some estimates. News release text 

references to statistical significance have also been removed. Pay relative estimates have not changed. 

For more information, see http://www.bls.gov/ncs.)

 

OCCUPATIONAL PAY COMPARISONS AMONG METROPOLITAN AREAS, 2008 

Average pay for civilian workers in the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA metropolitan area was 19 

percent above the national average in 2008, one of 77 metropolitan areas studied by the National Compensation 

Survey (NCS), the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The 

Brownsville-Harlingen, TX metropolitan area had a pay relative of 77, meaning workers earned an average of 

77 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 nine major occupational groups within surveyed 

metropolitan areas, as well as averaged across all occupations for each area. The average pay relative nationally 

for all occupations and for each occupational group equals 100. (See table 1.) 

A pay relative is a calculation of pay—wages, salaries, commissions, and production bonuses—for a 

given metropolitan area relative to the nation as a whole. The calculation controls for differences among areas 

in occupational composition, establishment and occupational characteristics, and the fact that data are collected 

for areas at different times during the year. Simple pay comparisons calculating the ratio of the average pay for 

an area to the entire United States in percentage terms would not control for interarea differences in 

occupational composition and other factors, which may have an effect on pay relatives. 

Table A below lists selected metropolitan area pay relatives compared to average pay nationally among 

those studied in the NCS. Table B provides selected metropolitan area pay relatives for each of nine major 

occupational groups. In addition, area-to-area comparisons have been calculated for all 77 metropolitan areas 

and are available on the BLS website at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/payrel.htm. 

Table A. Selected metropolitan area pay relatives (of 77 metropolitan areas surveyed) 

Metropolitan Area Pay Relative (Average pay nationally = 100)

San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA 119 

New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA 114 

Boston-Worcester-Manchester, MA-NH 111 

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA 109 

Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV 109 

Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City, IL-IN-WI 108 

 USDL: 09-0843 

 News

Bureau of Labor Statistics Washington, D.C. 20212 

United States 

Department 

of Labor
2 

Table A (Continued). Selected metropolitan area pay relatives (of 77 metropolitan areas surveyed) 

Metropolitan Area Pay Relative (Average pay nationally = 100)

Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland, PA-NJ-DE-MD 105 

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville, GA-AL 100 

Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, TX 98 

Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 97 

Table B. Selected metropolitan area-to-national pay relatives for nine major occupational groups, 2008 (of 77 

metropolitan areas surveyed) 

 Major Occupational Group Metropolitan Area Pay Relative

Management, business, and financial New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA 115 

Salinas, CA 113 

Professional and related Salinas, CA 120 

San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA 119 

Service San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA 126 

Salinas, CA 123 

Sales and related Salinas, CA 129 

San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA 122 

Office and administrative support San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA 120 

New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA 116 

Construction and extraction New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA 132 

Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City, IL-IN-WI 131 

Installation, maintenance, and repair Salinas, CA 124 

San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA 117 

Production Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Truckee, CA-NV 121 

Bloomington-Normal, IL 116 

Detroit-Warren-Flint, MI 116 

Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia, WA 116 

Transportation and material moving Springfield, MA 114 

Fort Collins-Loveland, CO 113 

The pay relative for construction and extraction occupations in the New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NYNJ-CT-PA area was 132, meaning the pay in the New York metropolitan area for that occupational group 

averaged 32 percent more than the national average pay for that occupational group. By contrast, the pay 

relative for workers in construction and extraction in the Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas area was 66, meaning 

pay for workers in those occupations averaged 34 percent less than the national average. (See table 1.) 

Yearly differences in area and occupational group pay relatives do not infer changes in underlying 

economic conditions. 
Table 1. Pay relatives for major occupational groups in metropolitan areas, National Compensation Survey, July 2008(Average pay nationally for all occupations and for each occupational group shown = 100.)

Metropolitan Area1 All occupations Management, business, and financial Professional and related Service Sales and related Office and administrative support Construction and extraction Instal

mainte

and r

United States .................................................... 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 

Amarillo, TX ...................................................... 89 98 83 91 91 89 86 

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville, GA-AL ...... 100 102 102 96 96 105 88 

Austin-Round Rock, TX .................................... 93 92 92 91 95 94 82 Birmingham-Hoover, AL ................................... 96 103 100 96 93 97 85 Bloomington, IN ................................................ 90 91 91 86 83 92 77 

Bloomington-Normal, IL .................................... 101 100 102 106 102 95 103 

Boston-Worcester-Manchester, MA-NH ........... 111 105 108 114 109 115 120 

Brownsville-Harlingen, TX ................................ 77 90 87 80 70 76 66 

Buffalo-Niagara-Cattaraugus, NY ..................... 99 89 92 107 93 95 113 Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville,

SC ................................................................... 92 92 95 87 96 95 78 

Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC ............... 99 105 94 97 100 99 91 

Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City, IL-IN-WI ..... 108 104 107 107 107 110 131 

Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington,

OH-KY-IN ....................................................... 99 95 102 101 94 99 91 

Cleveland-Akron-Elyria, OH ............................. 99 100 97 100 94 100 103 

Columbus-Marion-Chillicothe, OH .................... 99 96 96 102 100 98 99 Corpus Christi, TX ............................................ 89 85 88 85 89 86 99 Dallas-Fort Worth, TX ....................................... 97 99 99 92 105 100 90 

Dayton-Springfield-Greenville, OH ................... 96 100 92 95 95 91 94 

Denver-Aurora-Boulder, CO ............................. 104 100 103 106 104 104 98 Detroit-Warren-Flint, MI .................................... 104 95 103 100 99 103 100 Elkhart-Goshen, IN ........................................... 96 96 92 94 91 93 110 

Fort Collins-Loveland, CO ................................ 102 93 96 99 103 104 103 

Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI ............................. 99 90 95 105 106 99 108 Great Falls, MT ................................................. 88 86 77 96 87 80 114 

Greensboro-High Point, NC .............................. 95 100 94 92 99 98 88 

Greenville-Mauldin-Easley, SC ......................... 93 105 88 94 88 97 78 

Hartford-West Hartford-Willimantic, CT ............ 111 105 108 120 109 113 113 

Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC ......................... 94 95 84 89 94 93 97 

Honolulu, HI ...................................................... 105 105 101 116 109 96 118 

Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, TX ...................... 98 103 101 85 102 99 91 

Huntsville-Decatur, AL ...................................... 96 95 96 94 99 95 89 

Indianapolis-Anderson-Columbus, IN ............... 95 81 97 93 84 97 92 

Iowa City, IA ..................................................... 97 98 93 101 96 99 104 Johnstown, PA .................................................. 86 83 84 91 85 87 91 

Kansas City, MO-KS ......................................... 99 92 98 98 102 98 98 

Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, WA ...................... 102 102 95 111 103 96 107 Knoxville, TN .................................................... 91 105 99 82 98 90 78 

Lincoln, NE ....................................................... 88 83 83 91 85 88 85 

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA .......... 109 110 110 112 111 107 111 

See footnotes at end of table.
Table 1. Pay relatives for major occupational groups in metropolitan areas, National Compensation Survey, July 2008 — Continued(Average pay nationally for all occupations and for each occupational group shown = 100.)

Metropolitan Area1 All occupations Management, business, and financial Professional and related Service Sales and related Office and administrative support Construction and extraction Install

mainte

and r

Louisville/Jefferson

County-Elizabethtown-Scottsburg, KY-IN ....... 94 89 91 97 102 97 93 

Memphis, TN-MS-AR ....................................... 94 93 92 86 102 97 95 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL ... 98 105 96 101 97 100 91 Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, WI .................... 99 97 95 97 106 101 105 Minneapolis-St. Paul-St. Cloud, MN-WI ........... 108 108 103 116 107 104 114 Mobile, AL ......................................................... 92 94 91 90 93 93 93 New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA .................... 97 93 102 95 97 97 94 New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA .. 114 115 115 114 113 116 132 Ocala, FL .......................................................... 89 77 84 93 91 90 76 Oklahoma City, OK ........................................... 92 87 90 91 95 89 114 Orlando-Kissimmee, FL .................................... 91 89 87 90 96 90 94 Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL ................... 92 86 86 96 93 88 93 Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland,

PA-NJ-DE-MD ................................................ 105 104 107 104 97 106 104 

Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ .......................... 99 102 101 99 108 99 91 Pittsburgh-New Castle, PA ............................... 95 88 94 95 92 97 93 Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA .......... 105 98 100 112 109 107 114 Providence-New Bedford-Fall River, RI-MA ..... 108 102 111 113 102 106 110 Reading, PA ..................................................... 101 106 92 99 107 100 102 Reno-Sparks, NV .............................................. 99 96 98 99 106 100 88 Richmond, VA ................................................... 97 97 96 97 94 101 88 Rochester, NY .................................................. 99 91 98 109 98 99 95 Rockford, IL ...................................................... 98 89 97 101 97 96 110 Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Truckee, CA-NV ... 109 106 114 112 108 106 113 Salinas, CA ....................................................... 113 113 120 123 129 108 126 San Antonio, TX ............................................... 91 95 93 89 86 90 100 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA .............. 109 106 107 118 103 105 109 San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA ............. 119 111 119 126 122 120 123 Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia, WA .......................... 110 103 106 117 113 105 110 Springfield, MA ................................................. 110 100 110 109 111 108 109 Springfield, MO ................................................. 89 84 85 88 93 87 79 St. Louis, MO-IL ................................................ 104 100 100 98 98 101 116 Tallahassee, FL ................................................ 89 83 82 95 91 89 91 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL ............. 93 93 90 94 100 96 100 Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News,

VA-NC ............................................................ 92 85 91 95 95 91 85 

Visalia-Porterville, CA ....................................... 100 89 103 104 102 96 87 Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia,

DC-MD-VA-WV ............................................... 109 105 110 106 108 112 101 

York-Hanover, PA ............................................. 95 110 98 96 90 93 98 Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA .......... 93 99 90 93 87 94 90 

1 A metropolitan area can be a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) or Combined Statistical Area (CSA) as defined by the Office of Management and Budget, December 2003.
5 

Technical Note 

Pay relative controls and calculations 

Pay relatives control for differences among areas in occupational composition as well as establishment 

and occupational characteristics. Metropolitan areas often differ greatly in the composition of establishments 

and occupations that are available to the local workforce. For example, in Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas, the 

ratio of workers in the high-paying management, business, and financial occupational group to the number of 

workers in all occupations is under 6 percent, whereas nationally this ratio is nearly 10 percent.1

 In addition to 

these factors, the NCS collects compensation data for metropolitan areas at different times during the year. 

Payroll reference dates differ between areas, which makes direct comparisons between areas difficult. 

The pay relative approach controls for these differences to isolate the geographic effect on wages. To 

illustrate the importance of controlling for these effects, consider the following example. The average pay for 

construction and extraction workers in the New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA metropolitan area is 

$33.14 and the average pay for construction and extraction workers in the United States is $20.91.2 A simple 

pay comparison can be calculated from the ratio of the two average pay levels, multiplied by 100 to express the 

comparison as a percentage. The pay comparison in the example is calculated as: 

 ($33.14  $20.91)  100  158 

This comparison does not control for differences between New York and the nation in the mix of 

occupations, industries, and other factors. A more accurate estimate of the geographic effect of wages in New 

York can be obtained by taking these differences into account. Controlling for differences in occupational 

composition, establishment and occupational characteristics, and the payroll reference date in New York 

relative to the nation as a whole, the pay relative for construction and extraction occupations in New York is 

132. 

Survey methodology 

 The National Compensation Survey (NCS) collects earnings and other data on employee compensation 

covering over 800 detailed occupations. Average occupational earnings from the NCS are published annually 

for 77 metropolitan areas and for the United States as a whole. This release provides data for the civilian 

economy, which includes the total private nonfarm economy excluding private households, and the public 

sector excluding the federal government. Beginning in 2006, the NCS implemented a number of significant 

survey changes including imputing for temporary non-response situations and benchmarking estimated 

employment. For more details on these changes, see James E. Smith and Robert W. Van Giezen, “Change 

Comes to the National Compensation Survey Locality Wage Bulletins,” Compensation and Working Conditions 

Online, January 24, 2007 at http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/cm20070122ar01p1.htm. 

 The NCS program collects data in U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defined geographic 

areas. With the collection of the 2008 data, the NCS is in its second year of a six-year transition from the June 

1993 OMB area definitions to the December 2003 OMB area definitions. The area titles have been updated to 

reflect the new area definitions. For more information on the area definitions, see Jason Techonica, “New Area 

Sample Selected for the National Compensation Survey,” Compensation and Working Conditions Online, 

March, 30 2005 at http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/cm20050318ar01p1.htm. 

Historical pay relatives data are available for the survey years 1992-1996, 1998, 2002, 2004-2007. 

There are several differences between the recent pay relatives and the pay relatives for earlier years, including 

different industry and occupation classification systems, varying methodology, and different survey designs. 
6 

These differences limit comparability. The pay relatives since 2004 were calculated using the same industry 

and occupation classification systems, methodology, and survey design. Nonetheless, comparisons between the 

estimates for these years should be made only with caution. 

Pay relatives were estimated using a multivariate regression technique designed to control for interarea 

differences. This technique controls for the following ten characteristics: 

 Occupational type 

 Industry type 

 Work level 

 Full-time / part-time status 

 Time / incentive status 

 Union / nonunion status 

 Ownership type 

 Profit / non-profit status 

 Establishment employment 

 Payroll reference date 

Even accounting for the characteristics used in the current regression analysis, there is still wage 

variation across the areas. The variation is due to differences in wage determinants that were not included in the 

model. Examples of these determinants include price levels, environmental amenities such as a pleasant 

climate, and cultural amenities. 

The pay relatives in this release, as with estimates from any sample survey, are subject to sampling and 

non-sampling errors. Sampling errors are differences that occur between the pay relatives estimated from the 

sample and the true pay relatives derived from the population. Pay relatives are also subject to a variety of nonsampling errors that can influence the estimates. The NCS may be unable to obtain information for some 

establishments; there may be difficulties with survey definitions; respondents may be unable to provide correct 

information, or mistakes in recording or coding the data may occur. Non-sampling errors of these kinds were 

not specifically measured. However, they are expected to be minimal due to the extensive training of the field 

economists who gathered the survey data, computer edits of the data, and detailed data review. 

For more details, see Maury B. Gittleman, "Pay Relatives for Metropolitan Areas in the NCS" Monthly 

Labor Review, March 2005, pp. 46-53, and Parastou Karen Shahpoori, "Pay Relatives for Major Metropolitan 

Areas," Compensation and Working Conditions Online, April 28, 2003. 

Obtaining information 

Articles, bulletins, and other information from the National Compensation Survey may be obtained by 

calling (202) 691-6199, sending email to NCSinfo@bls.gov, or visiting the Internet site http://www.bls.gov/ncs. 

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 

(202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service Number: 1-800-877-8339. 

1

 Data for this example are based on the May 2008 Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, 

http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm. 2

 Average pay for construction and extraction workers in New York and for the United States are based on wage estimates published 

in the New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA National Compensation Survey, May 2008 and the forthcoming National 

Compensation Survey: Occupational Wages in the United States, 2008, http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/compub.htm.