July 23, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Average weekly wages among large counties, fourth quarter 2008

Workers in New York, New York, were the highest paid among all workers in large counties, with an average weekly wage of $1,856 in the fourth quarter of 2008. The national average weekly wage was $918.

[Chart data—TXT]

Workers in Fairfield, Connecticut, ranked second, with an average weekly wage of $1,596, followed by those in Washington, D.C. ($1,570), Suffolk, Massachusetts ($1,568), and Santa Clara, California ($1,566).

Average weekly wages are affected by the number of high-paying and low-paying jobs in an industry.

These data are from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.  Large counties are defined as having employment levels of 75,000 or greater.  To learn more, see "County Employment and Wages: Fourth Quarter 2008" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL 09-0841.

Related TED article

• Employment changes in the largest counties, December 2008