July 10, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Hourly earnings highest in Middle Atlantic

Workers in the Middle Atlantic—defined as New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania—had the highest average hourly earnings of any region of the country in 1999.

Mean hourly earnings, private and State and local government workers, by Census division, 1999
[Chart data—TXT]

Private industry and State and local government workers in Middle Atlantic States averaged $17.84 per hour in 1999. The next highest hourly earnings were in New England, with a mean of $17.18, and in the Pacific States, with a mean of $16.87. The area with the lowest hourly earnings was East South Central, where the average was $12.13 per hour.

In the country as a whole, hourly earnings averaged $15.36 for private industry and State and local government workers in 1999.

These data on earnings are a product of the BLS National Compensation Survey. Additional information is available from National Compensation Survey: Occupational Wages in the United States, 1999 , (PDF 954K), BLS Summary 01-03. Geographic areas in this article are referred to as "census divisions." Note that the Middle Atlantic census division includes the New York City metropolitan area—which consists of parts of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut—and the Philadelphia area—which consists of parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.