Average Weekly Wages in Pennsylvania: First Quarter 2007 (PDF)

Allegheny County recorded 13th fastest wage growth in the United States
Montgomery County ranked 22nd highest in wages in the nation

In the first quarter of 2007, the average weekly wage in Allegheny County increased by 8.1 percent over the year, the largest advance among Pennsylvania’s 19 counties with employment of 75,000 or more. Luzerne County’s 6.1-percent wage growth was the second fastest in the Commonwealth, closely followed by Lehigh County’s 6.0 percent. Montgomery County had the highest average weekly wage level in Pennsylvania, $1,176, followed by Chester County ($1,117) and Philadelphia County ($1,038). Regional Commissioner Sheila Watkins noted that among Pennsylvania’s 19 large counties, 9 recorded wage growth above the national rate of 5.1 percent, though only 5 had wages above the nationwide average of $885. (See table 1.)

Pennsylvania’s counties had some of the highest average weekly wages in the country. Montgomery County ranked 22nd; Chester County, 32nd; and Philadelphia County, 45th when wages were compared for all 328 large counties nationwide. Counties in Pennsylvania also registered some of the largest over-the-year wage gains in the nation in the first quarter of 2007. Allegheny County’s wage growth was 13th highest in the United States, and the counties of Luzerne and Lehigh ranked 42nd and 45th, respectively. Four counties in Pennsylvania--Allegheny, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia--were among the top one-fourth of large counties nationwide in both wage levels and wage growth.

Wage levels (but not over-the-year changes) are also available for the 48 counties in Pennsylvania with employment below 75,000. All of these 48 counties had average weekly wages below the national level. (See table 2.)

County Wage Levels

Among Pennsylvania’s 19 large counties, 3 had average weekly wages exceeding $1,000 in the first quarter of 2007--Montgomery, Chester, and Philadelphia. Allegheny County was next averaging $946, followed by Delaware County at $926. All five of these large counties, four of which were located in the Philadelphia, Pa. metropolitan area, recorded wage levels greater than the nationwide average of $885 and ranked in the top one-fourth nationally. The average weekly wage in the top-paying county of Montgomery was 33 percent above the national level.

At the other end of the wage spectrum, Lackawanna County ($634) reported the lowest average weekly wage level in the Commonwealth, followed by the counties of Westmoreland ($659), Erie ($669), Luzerne ($679), and Lancaster ($708). These five counties, two of which were located in the Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, Pa. metropolitan area, ranked in the bottom one-fourth nationwide.

New York County, N.Y., held the top position among the highest-paid large counties with an average weekly wage of $2,821. Fairfield, Conn., was second with an average weekly wage of $1,979, followed by Suffolk, Mass. ($1,659), San Francisco, Calif. ($1,639), and Somerset, N.J. ($1,615). Of the 10 counties with the highest wages in the United States, 4 were located in the greater New York metropolitan area (New York, N.Y., Fairfield, Conn., Somerset, N.J., and Hudson, N.J.), 3 others were located in or around the San Francisco area (San Francisco, Santa Clara, and San Mateo, all in California), and 2 more were located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area (Arlington, Va., and Washington, D.C.). Rounding out the top 10 was Suffolk County, Mass., part of the Boston metropolitan area. Cameron County, Texas ($502) reported the lowest average weekly wage, followed by the counties of Hidalgo, Texas ($516), Horry, S.C. ($536), Webb, Texas ($542), and Yakima, Wash. ($569).

County Wage Changes

Of Pennsylvania’s 19 large counties, 9 recorded wage growth above the national increase of 5.1 percent from the first quarter of 2006 to the first quarter of 2007. As mentioned, Allegheny County’s 8.1-percent wage gain was the largest increase in the Commonwealth and 13th highest in the nation, followed by Luzerne County’s 6.1-percent gain (42nd), and Lehigh County’s 6.0-percent advance (45th). The other six counties with higher-than-average wage growth were Philadelphia (5.8 percent), Butler and Delaware (both 5.6 percent), Erie (5.5 percent), Montgomery (5.4 percent), and Dauphin (5.2 percent). All nine counties registered wage growth rates among the highest one-fourth of large counties in the U.S.

Cumberland and Lancaster Counties, each at 2.2 percent, reported the lowest percentage increase in average weekly wages in the Commonwealth in the first quarter of 2007. Westmoreland County was next at 2.5 percent, followed by Lackawanna County with 3.1 percent. With the exception of Lackawanna, these counties ranked in the bottom one-fourth in wage growth nationwide.

Among the largest counties, Trumbull, Ohio, led the nation in growth in average weekly wages with an increase of 22.3 percent from the first quarter of 2006. New York, N.Y., was second with growth of 16.7 percent, followed by the counties of Cobb, Ga. (11.2 percent), Suffolk, Mass. (10.8 percent), and Clay, Mo. (9.7 percent). New York County experienced substantial over-the-year wage growth, which had a significant impact on national average weekly wage growth in the first quarter of 2007. Without New York County’s over-the-year employment and wage growth, national average weekly wage growth would have been 4.2 percent; a 0.9-percentage point reduction.

Fourteen counties experienced over-the-year declines in average weekly wages. Bibb, Ga., and Loudoun, Va., led the nation in declines (-3.0 percent each), followed by the counties of Orleans, La., and Norfolk, Mass. (-2.7 percent each), and Arapahoe, Colo., Sarasota, Fla., and Peoria, Ill. (-1.8 percent each).

Wage Levels in Pennsylvania’s Smaller Counties

As mentioned, all 48 counties in Pennsylvania with employment below 75,000 had average weekly wages below the national level. Sullivan County reported the lowest wage level, at $452. The highest wage among Pennsylvania’s 48 small counties was Montour County’s $847, followed by Greene County’s $803.

Six of the Commonwealth’s 19 large counties recorded higher wage levels than Montour County, but none recorded lower wages than Sullivan County. When all 67 counties in Pennsylvania are considered, three--Sullivan, Susquehanna, and Perry--had wages below $500. Of these, two were located in the northeastern part of the Commonwealth, and the third was located in the Harrisburg metropolitan area, in central Pennsylvania. Three other counties--Montgomery, Chester, and Philadelphia--had wages above $1,000. All three of these counties were located in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth. Forty-four, or nearly two-thirds, of the counties in Pennsylvania reported average weekly wages from $501 to $700 in the first quarter of 2007. (See chart 1.)

State Average Weekly Wages

The average weekly wage in Pennsylvania was $849, $36 below the nationwide level, ranking 16th highest among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. (See table 3.) Nationally, 8 of the 11 areas in which average weekly wage levels surpassed the U.S. average fell in a contiguous band along the east coast, stretching from Massachusetts to Virginia. The five highest average wages were in the District of Columbia ($1,428), New York ($1,397), Connecticut ($1,263), Massachusetts ($1,110), and New Jersey ($1,097). Average weekly wages in this group were 24 percent or more above that for the nation. At the other end of the scale, seven states had wage levels 75 percent or less of national earnings: Montana ($600), South Dakota ($602), North Dakota ($615), Mississippi ($616), Idaho ($636), Arkansas ($642), and West Virginia ($652).

New York experienced wage growth of 11.8 percent from the first quarter of 2006 to the first quarter of 2007, higher than any other state. Wyoming was second with 9.3-percent growth, followed by Rhode Island, at 7.1 percent. No state experienced over-the-year declines. Oklahoma posted the smallest wage gain, up 1.3 percent. Pennsylvania’s average wage growth equaled the nation’s 5.1-percent advance.

Average weekly wage data by county are compiled under the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program, also known as the ES-202 program. The data are derived from reports submitted by employers subject to state and federal unemployment insurance (UI) laws. The 8.9 million employer reports cover 134.3 million full- and part-time workers. The average weekly wage is computed by dividing the total quarterly payroll of employees covered by UI programs by the average monthly number of these employees. This number then is divided by 13, the number of weeks in a quarter. It is to be noted, therefore, that over-the-year wage changes for geographic areas may reflect shifts in the composition of employment by industry, occupation, and such other factors as hours of work. Thus, wages may vary among counties, metropolitan areas, or States for reasons other than changes in the average wage level. Data for all states, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), counties, and the nation are available on the BLS Web site at www.bls.gov/cew/; however, data in QCEW press releases have been revised (see Note below) and will not match the data contained on the Bureau’s Web site.

Additional statistics and other information

An annual bulletin, Employment and Wages, features comprehensive information by detailed industry on establishments, employment, and wages for the nation and all states. Employment and Wages Annual Averages, 2006 will be available for sale in early 2008 from the United States Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA, 15250 or by calling 1-866-512-1800. The 2005 bulletin is now available in a portable document format (PDF) on the BLS Web site. Also, the quarterly press release, County Employment and Wages, presents employment and wage data for the largest counties in the U.S. and is available at www.bls.gov/cew/.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; TDD message referral phone number: 1-800-877-8339.

For personal assistance or further information on the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages Program, as well as other Bureau programs, contact the Mid-Atlantic Information Office at 215-597-3282 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET.

QCEW-based news releases issued by other regional offices have been placed at one convenient Web site location.

Technical Note

QCEW data are the sums of individual establishment records reflecting the number of establishments that exist in a county or industry at a point in time. For this reason, county and industry data are not designed to be used as a time series.

The preliminary QCEW data presented in this release may differ from data released by the individual states as well as from the data presented on the BLS Web site. The potential differences result from several causes. Differences between BLS and State published data may be due to the continuing receipt, review and editing of UI data over time. On the other hand, differences between data in this release and the data found on the BLS Web site are the result of adjustments made to improve over-the-year comparisons. Specifically, these adjustments account for administrative (noneconomic) changes such as a correction to a previously reported location or industry classification. Adjusting for these administrative changes allows users to more accurately assess changes of an economic nature (such as a firm moving from one county to another or changing its primary economic activity) over a 12-month period. Currently, adjusted data are available only from BLS press releases.