U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS COMPENSATION AND WORKING CONDITIONS

Page 1

Occupational Pay Relatives in San Francisco and Brownsville, 2004

by Lawrence H. Leith

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Originally Posted: March 29, 2006

Using data from the National Compensation Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produced occupational "pay

relatives" to facilitate comparisons of occupational pay between metropolitan areas and the United States as a whole. Pay

relatives for 2004 have been prepared for each of nine major occupational groups within 78 Metropolitan Statistical Areas

(MSAs), as well as averaged across all occupations for each area. The pay relatives averaged for workers in all occupations

in San Francisco and Brownsville were, respectively, the highest and lowest among the 78 areas. These data were first

published in a news release entitled Occupational Pay Relatives, 2004 (USDL 05-2382, U.S. Department of Labor,

December 28, 2005). BLS plans to publish new data on pay relatives annually.

• The San Francisco MSA recorded a pay relative of 117 in 2004, while the Brownsville, TX, MSA recorded a pay

relative of 81. This means that the average rate of pay in the San Francisco area was 17 percent greater than the

national average, while the average rate of pay in the Brownsville area was 19 percent below the national average.
U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS COMPENSATION AND WORKING CONDITIONS

Page 2

• Among construction and extraction occupations, the 2004 pay relative was 127 in the San Francisco area and 70 in

the Brownsville area. This means that the average rate of pay for this occupational group in the San Francisco area

was 27 percent greater than the national average, while in the Brownsville area average pay for this group was 30

percent below the national average.

• Professional and related occupations in the San Francisco area earned 18 percent more than workers in that

occupational group nationally. In Brownsville, professional and related occupations earned 5 percent less than the

national average, which was the closest to the national rate of any of the nine major occupational groups in that MSA.

NOTE: Standard errors have been developed for the 2004 Occupational Pay Relatives, specifically for area pay relative to

the national average; however, caution must be used when making inferences about an occupational wage in one area

compared with that of another area. There is no statistical significance test for area-to-area comparisons.1 Research is

currently being conducted by the BLS Office of Compensation and Working Conditions for the purpose of providing interarea

standard errors for the Pay Relatives data. For research developments in this area, see the National Compensation Survey

home page, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/home.htm.
U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS COMPENSATION AND WORKING CONDITIONS

Page 3

SOURCE: National Compensation Survey, Wages

Lawrence H. Leith

Economist, Office of Publications and Special Studies, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Telephone: (202) 691-7922; E-mail: Leith.Lawrence@bls.gov

Notes

1 For example, the 2004 pay relative for all private industry occupations was 117 for San Francisco and 81 for Brownsville. The San Franciscoto-Brownsville pay relative for all occupations, private industry, is calculated as follows:

 (117/81) X 100 = 144

In this example, there is a pay premium of approximately 44 percent for all private industry occupations in San Francisco relative to all private

industry occupations in Brownsville; however the difference in average pay between San Francisco and Brownsville may or may not be

statistically significant.

Data for Chart 1: Occupational pay relatives for all occupations, private industry, for Brownsville, TX, and San

Francisco, CA, metropolitan areas, 2004

Brownsville United States San Francisco

All occupations 81 100 117

Data for Chart 2: Occupational pay relatives for Brownsville, TX, and San Francisco, CA, metropolitan areas, 2004,

selected occupational groups.

Brownsville San Francisco

Construction and extraction 70 127

Installation, maintenance, and repair 80 116

Production 73 110

Transportation and material moving 77 113

Data for Chart 3. Occupational pay relatives for Brownsville, TX, and San Francisco, CA, metropolitan areas, private

industry, 2004, selected occupational groups.

Brownsville San Francisco

Management, business, and financial 78 117

Professional and related 95 118

Service 81 121

Sales and related 80 113

Office and administrative support 81 120

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics | Division of Information and Marketing Services, PSB Suite 2850, 2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC

20212-0001 | www.bls.gov/OPUB | Telephone: 1-202-691-5200 | Contact Us