CONTACT: Media Interviews (415) 625-2270 Internet address: www.bls.gov/ro9/news.htm

BLS 09-06 FOR RELEASE: Monday, February 2, 2009

Workers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside metropolitan area earned an average of $23.15 per hour in April 2008, according to new survey results from the National Compensation Survey (NCS) released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Regional Commissioner Richard J. Holden reported wage data for workers in a wide range of occupational groups, including average hourly earnings of $47.22 for management occupations and $41.79 for architecture and engineering occupations. In two other occupational groups, healthcare practitioner and technical occupations had a mean hourly wage rate of $34.99 and office and administrative support workers earned $17.79. The NCS data available for the Los Angeles area include earnings for 21 major occupational groups with additional detail for selected occupations within those groups. (See table 1.)

Engineering managers, part of the management occupational group, earned $59.95 per hour. Within the architecture and engineering occupational group, civil engineers earned $44.30 per hour and in the healthcare practitioner and technical occupational group, registered nurses averaged $37.72. Payroll and timekeeping clerks, an occupation within the office and administrative support group, registered an average hourly rate of $18.91 per hour.

Broad coverage of selected occupational characteristics is available from NCS for the local area. Full-time workers averaged $24.40 per hour while their part-time counterparts earned $13.69. Union workers earned $28.60 and non-union workers, $21.51. Workers in establishments with 1-99 workers averaged $19.85 per hour, those in establishments with 100-499 workers earned $21.66, and those in establishments with 500 or more employees earned $30.14.

The occupational wage data available from NCS may be used by businesses for establishing pay plans, making decisions concerning plant relocation, and in collective bargaining negotiations. Individuals may use such data to help choose potential careers. NCS results also include the work level and respective earnings for occupations determined by a point factor leveling process. The four occupational leveling factors are: knowledge, job controls and complexity, contacts, and physical environment. Details on the NCS are available at www.bls.gov/ncs/.

The NCS data provided in the detailed bulletin covered 1,334 establishments with one or more workers in private industry and State and local governments. Agricultural establishments, private households, the self-employed, and the Federal Government were excluded from the survey. This sample of establishments represented 6,830,500 workers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside Combined Statistical Area (CSA) which is comprised Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura Counties in California.

Complete survey results are contained in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA National Compensation Survey April 2008 which is available on the Internet in both text and PDF formats at www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/compub.htm.

For personal assistance or further information on the National Compensation Survey, as well as other Bureau data, contact the Western Information Office by calling (415) 625-2270 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. PT.

Please click here for a text formatted copy of the table issued with this release.

 

Last Modified Date: February 2, 2008