21

D. A Comparison of Occupational

Employment and Wages

in Metropolitan Areas

and Nonmetropolitan Areas

Benjamin Cover

Less than 20 percent of all people work in nonmetropolitan areas in the United States, and theiraverage hourly wage is over $3 less than that of people

in metropolitan areas. However, by occupation, the concentration of workers and their wages in nonmetropolitan areas

vary considerably from the national averages. Overall average salaries are higher in metropolitan areas than in

nonmetropolitan areas, but there are some exceptions. While

most jobs are more likely to be located in metropolitan areas,

some jobs are more likely to be found in nonmetropolitan

areas. This article explores the difference in occupational

wages and employment in metropolitan areas and

nonmetropolitan areas.

Wages

Occupations in metropolitan areas commonly have a higher

mean wage. In fact, the mean wage across all occupations in

metropolitan areas is $18.38, whereas the mean wage across

occupations in nonmetropolitan areas is $14.30. Out of the

801 detailed occupations in the OES survey, 658 had a higher

wage in metropolitan areas, 17 a higher wage in nonmetropolitan areas. The remaining 126 were not significantly different. Of the 658 detailed occupations with a higher wage in

metropolitan areas, the difference ranged from $0.14 to $34.70.

In four occupational groups, every single detailed occupation had a higher mean wage in metropolitan areas: legal

occupations, healthcare support occupations, food preparation and serving related occupations, and building and

grounds maintenance occupations. Table D1 shows the detailed occupations with the highest percentage of wage premium for workers in metropolitan areas.

Twelve of the 17 detailed occupations with a higher mean

wage in nonmetropolitan areas were found in 4 occupational

groups: four of the 12 were healthcare practitioner and technical occupations, 4 were production occupations, 2 were

transportation and material moving occupations, and 2 were

construction and extraction occupations. Of the 17 detailed

occupations with a higher wage in nonmetropolitan areas,

the difference ranged from $0.53 to $11.12. These occupations are shown in table D2.

Employment

The nationwide concentration of workers in metropolitan

areas can be found throughout most types of occupations.

Each one of the 22 major occupational groups had more employment in metropolitan areas than rural areas, ranging from

a low of 68.5 percent of farming and fishing workers to a high

of 95 percentage of computer and mathematical workers being located in metropolitan areas. At the detailed occupational level, 770 of the 801 occupations had a higher percent

of employment in metropolitan areas. The occupations with

the highest concentration of workers in metropolitan areas

are shown in table D3.

Although most of the detailed occupations follow the

trend of higher employment in metropolitan areas, there are

still some exceptions. For example, 82 percent of mining roof

bolters were found in nonmetropolitan areas, while only 18

percent were found in metropolitan areas. The 20 occupations with more employment in nonmetropolitan areas are

shown in chart D1, along with their shares of employment in

both metropolitan areas and nonmetropolitan areas.

Another way to compare employment in metropolitan and

nonmetropolitan areas is to compare the distribution of employment among the occupational groups. For example, office and administrative support occupations make up 18.2

percent of all metropolitan employment, but only 15.2 percent of nonmetropolitan employment. Conversely, 12 percent of nonmetropolitan area workers are production workers, while only 7.2 percent of metropolitan area workers are in

this group. Chart D2 shows the proportion of workers in

each occupational group in metropolitan areas and nonmetropolitan areas.

Relationship between wages and employment

concentration

Production occupations and transportation and material

moving occupations were two of the three occupational

Ben Cover is an economist in the Division of Occupational Employment Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 D.
22

groups with the largest difference in employment shares

among those with a higher concentration in nonmetropolitan

areas. Interestingly enough, those two occupational groups

also contain more than one-third of the detailed occupations

with a higher mean wage in nonmetropolitan areas. The

detailed occupations show the same relationship between

wage premium and employment. For example, 5 of the 10

occupations with the highest wage premiums in

nonmetropolitan areas (bridge and lock tenders; continuous

mining machine operators; gas compressor and gas pumping station operators; tire builders; and mining machine operators, all other) have a concentration of employment higher

than the national average of 16 percent. The same can be

seen in occupations concentrated in metropolitan areas. The

occupation titled airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers

has the highest wage premium, 122 percent, and has a 98-

percent concentration of metropolitan employment. In fact,

8 of the 10 occupations with the highest wage premiums in

metropolitan areas have a concentration of employment

higher than the national average of 84 percent.

Chart D3 shows the correlation between the percentage

of metropolitan employment and the percentage of metropolitan wage premium, which have an overall positive correlation of 0.3.

The positive slope in the trend line shows that a higher

percentage of metropolitan employment generally corresponds to a higher percentage of wage premium, and the

Table D2. Occupations with higher wages in nonmetropolitan areas, May 2004

Orthotists and prosthetists ...................................................................................... $37.75 $26.63 $11.12 29

Dancers .................................................................................................................... 15.57 11.88 3.69 24

Health diagnosing and treating practitioners, all other ........................................... 55.31 43.40 11.91 22

Bridge and lock tenders ........................................................................................... 19.2 15.94 3.26 17

Physicians and surgeons, all other ......................................................................... 75.41 65.28 10.13 13

Continuous mining machine operators ................................................................... 18.28 16.23 2.05 11

Gas compressor and gas pumping station operators ........................................... 23.07 20.53 2.54 11

Tire builders .............................................................................................................. 18.72 16.62 2.10 11

Mathematicians ......................................................................................................... 42.94 38.90 4.04 9

First-line supervisors/managers, protective service workers, all other .............. 21.56 19.59 1.97 9

Mining machine operators, all other ........................................................................ 18.18 16.62 1.56 9

First-line supervisors/managers of farming, fishing, and forestry workers ......... 19.19 18.00 1.19 6

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders ........................................ 15.69 14.74 0.95 6

Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders ....... 14.21 13.42 0.79 6

Family and general practitioners .............................................................................. 68.98 65.77 3.21 5

Shoe and leather workers and repairers ................................................................ 9.94 9.49 0.45 5

Postal service clerks ................................................................................................ 20.24 19.71 0.53 3

Nonmetropolitan mean

wage

Metropolitan

mean wage Difference

Percent Occupation difference

Table D3. Occupations with the largest concentration of

employment in metropolitan areas, May 2004

Entertainers and performers, sports and

 related workers, all other .............................. 99.0

Mathematical scientists, all other ................... 99.0

Political scientists ............................................. 98.9

Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers .... 97.9

Computer software engineers,

 systems software .......................................... 97.8

Computer hardware engineers ....................... 97.6

Medical scientists, except epidemiologists ... 97.4

Actuaries .......................................................... 97.4

Multimedia artists and animators .................... 97.3

Prosthodontists ............................................... 97.3

Percent

metropolitan

employment

Occupation

Table D1. Occupations with the largest percent wage premiums in metropolitan areas, May 2004

Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers .......................................................... $131,270 $59,090 $72,180 122

Broadcast news analysts ..................................................................................... 29.04 13.78 15.26 111

Makeup artists, theatrical and performance ....................................................... 15.91 7.96 7.95 100

Prosthodontists ..................................................................................................... 70.83 37.32 33.51 90

Political scientists ................................................................................................... 41.45 22.40 19.05 85

Producers and directors ....................................................................................... 35.49 19.37 16.12 83

Actors ..................................................................................................................... 22.83 13.36 9.47 71

Radio and television announcers ......................................................................... 16.74 9.81 6.93 71

Astronomers .......................................................................................................... 48.13 28.66 19.47 68

Fashion designers ................................................................................................. 31.38 18.90 12.48 66

Nonmetropolitan mean

wage

Metropolitan

mean wage Difference

Percent Occupation difference
23

Chart D1. Occupations concentrated in nonmetropolitan areas, May 2004

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Metropolitan areas 

Nonmetropolitan areas 

Wellhead pumpers

Roof bolters, mining

Logging equipment operators

Shuttle car operators

Fallers

Log graders and scalers

Continuous mining machine operators

Logging workers, all other

Forest and conservation technicians

 Slaughterers and meatpackers

Loading machine operators, underground mining

Farm equipment mechanics

Postmasters and mail superintendents

Foresters

Animal breeders

Service unit operators, oil, gas, and mining

Fish and game wardens

Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood

Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers

Mine cutting and channeling machine operators

Percent of employment

Occupation

Chart D2. Distribution of employment in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, May 2004

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

 Metropolitan areas 

 Nonmetropolitan areas 

Percent of employment

Occupational group

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

Management

Business and financial operations 

Computer and mathematical

Architecture and engineering

Life, physical, and social science 

Community and social services 

Legal 

Education, training, and library

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

Healthcare practitioners and technical

Personal care and service

Healthcare support

Food preparation and serving related

Sales and related

Office and administrative support

Farming, fishing, and forestry

Construction and extraction

Installation, maintenance, and repair

Protective service

Production

Transportation and material moving
24

higher the concentration in nonmetropolitan areas, the

higher are the relative wages in nonmetropolitan areas.

However, there are exceptions to this general correspondence: the points in the top-left hand corner of the graph

have the opposite relationship of a higher percentage of

metropolitan employment together with a wage premium for

workers in nonmetropolitan areas. These occupations include ortho-tists and prosthetists, all other health diagnosing and treating practitioners, and dancers. There are no

data points in the lower right-hand corner of the graph,

indicating that it is rare to have a high percentage of wage

premium together with a low percentage of metropolitan

employment.

Conclusion

In general, average wages in metropolitan areas are higher

than in rural areas for workers in the same occupation. There

also are more jobs in metropolitan areas. There appears to be

a slight correlation between the concentration of workers in

metropolitan areas and their wages relative to the workers in

the same occupation in nonmetropolitan areas. Similarly, the

occupations that are more plentiful in nonmetropolitan areas

have relatively higher mean wages in those areas. There are

exceptions to this generalization, but it does give a sense of

the variability of an occupation’s mean wage between a metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area and the types of occupations that are concentrated in these areas.

Chart D3. Correlation between percent metropolitan employment and percent wage premium, 

 May 2004

-40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Percent 

metropolitan 

employment

Percent wage premium