General Information:   (617) 565-2327              USDL-09-014   

Media Contact:          Denis McSweeney           For release: Thursday, January 29, 2009
                              (617) 565-2331


HIGHLIGHTS OF PROVIDENCE-NEW BEDFORD-FALL RIVER, NATIONAL COMPENSATION SURVEY, JANUARY 2008

Workers in the Providence-New Bedford-Fall River metropolitan area earned an average of $21.06 per hour in January 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. Regional Commissioner Denis M. McSweeney noted that wage data were reported for workers in a wide range of occupational groups, including average hourly earnings of $15.47 for office and administrative support occupations and $14.95 for healthcare support occupations. Another occupational group, sales and related, had a mean hourly wage rate of $14.26. The NCS data available for the Providence area include earnings for 19 major occupational groups with additional detail for selected occupations within those groups. (See table 1.)

Executive secretaries and administrative assistants, part of the office and administrative support occupational group, earned $20.54 per hour, and tellers earned $12.63. Within the healthcare support occupational group, nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants averaged $14.10 per hour. Cashiers, an occupation within the sales and related group, registered an average hourly rate of $9.10.

Broad coverage of selected occupational characteristics is available from the NCS for the local area. Full-time workers averaged $22.46 per hour while their part-time counterparts earned $14.24. Union workers earned $25.88 and non-union workers, $20.15. Workers in establishments with 1-99 workers averaged $16.61 per hour, those in establishments with 100-499 workers earned $20.35, and those in establishments with 500 or more employees earned $31.37.

The occupational wage data available from the 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 contacts, and physical environment. Details on the NCS are available at www.bls.gov/ncs/.

The NCS data here covered 238 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 674,400 workers in the Providence-New Bedford-Fall River Metropolitan Statistical Area which is comprised of Bristol, Kent, Newport, Providence, and Washington Counties in Rhode Island and Bristol County in Massachusetts.

Survey Availability

Complete survey results are contained in the Providence-New Bedford-Fall River, RI-MA National Compensation Survey January 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 programs, contact the New England Information Office at 617-565-2327 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET.



Table 1. Civilian workers: Mean hourly earnings(1) for full-time and part-time workers(2), Providence-New Bedford-Fall River, RI-MA, January 2008
Occupation(3) Total Full-time workers Part-time workers
Mean Relative error (4) percent Mean Relative error (4) percent Mean Relative error (4) percent

All workers

 $21.06 5.3 $22.46 4.4 $14.24 19.6

Management occupations

 40.22 12.0 40.18 12.0 - -

Marketing and sales managers

 65.17 20.8 65.17 20.8 - -

Computer and information systems managers

 49.00 23.2 49.00 23.2 - -

Financial managers

 39.46 16.1 39.46 16.1 - -

Education administrators

 34.67 13.8 34.67 13.8 - -

Business and financial operations occupations

 29.85 9.2 30.04 9.4 – –

Computer and mathematical science occupations

 40.95 12.0 36.55 10.5 - -

Life, physical, and social sceience occupations

 31.13 10.5 31.13 10.5 – –

Community and social services occupations

 23.70 10.5 24.40 8.7 – –

Social workers

 22.51 10.6 22.51 10.6 – –

Education, training, and library occupations

 39.70 9.9 43.26 10.8 14.89 15.1

Postsecondary teachers

 70.74 9.6 70.74 9.6 – –

Primary, secondary, and special education school teachers

 41.88 11.5 42.41 11.9 – –

Elementary and middle school teachers

 45.91 4.2 46.27 4.4 - -

Elementary school teachers, except special education

 47.92 3.8 48.61 4.3 - -

Middle school teachers, except special and vocational education

 43.42 9.6 43.42 9.6 - -

Secondary school teachers

 48.33 2.2 50.60 5.4 - -

Secondary school teachers, except special and vocational education

 52.78 5.7 52.78 5.7 - -

Teacher assistants

 16.37 3.6 16.82 5.0 – –

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations

 24.68 5.9 - - - -

Healthcare practitioner and technical occupations

 31.77 4.7 32.65 6.7 29.14 4.1

Registered nurses

 31.08 3.6 30.53 4.6 32.59 8.8

Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses

 24.41 1.0 - - - -

Healthcare support occupations

 14.95 3.7 15.04 4.0 14.67 5.1

Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides

 13.78 2.0 13.98 3.2 13.03 3.2

Nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants

 14.10 2.4 14.37 4.0 13.21 4.9

Miscellaneous healthcare support occupations

 16.42 3.4 16.40 3.0 - -

Protective service occupations

 22.76 4.4 24.70 5.7 13.08 13.5

Food preparation and serving related occupations

 8.48 2.5 11.24 7.8 6.57 10.3

Cooks

 15.11 6.1 15.11 6.1 - -

Food service, tipped

 5.35 16.4 - - 4.16 6.8

Bartenders

 6.92 26.4 - - - -

Fast food and counter workers

 8.28 .9 - - 8.30 2.1

Counter attendants, cafeteria, food concession, and coffee shop

 8.06 1.1 - - - -

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations

 13.35 4.1 14.36 4.7 8.65 9.2

Building cleaning workers

 13.27 3.7 14.20 3.3 - -

Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners

 14.04 5.4 16.32 5.7 - -

Maids and housekeeping cleaners

 12.48 5.2 12.58 5.1 - -

Personal care and service occupations

 12.15 3.9 12.32 4.3 10.47 7.9

Recreation and fitness workers

 11.37 15.2 - - 9.87 6.2

Recreation workers

 11.11 18.0 - - 9.25 2.2

Sales and related occupations

 14.26 14.6 17.08 13.6 8.65 2.0

First-line supervisors/managers, sales workers

 19.13 21.0 19.13 21.0 - -

Retail sales workers

 10.34 9.0 12.05 13.6 8.44 1.0

Cashiers, all workers

 9.10 2.6 10.46 3.3 8.34 0.5

Cashiers

 9.10 2.6 10.46 3.3 8.34 0.5

Counter and rental clerks and parts salespersons

9.06 5.9 - - - -

Counter and rental clerks

 9.06 5.9 - - - -

Retail salespersons

 11.63 22.7 13.18 23.1 8.58 2.3

Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing

 31.23 15.2 31.23 15.2 - -

Office and administrative support occupations

 15.47 2.6 15.78 2.9 12.82 7.7

Financial clerks

 14.95 6.0 15.04 6.2 - -

Bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks

 16.49 11.4 - - - -

Tellers

 12.63 5.4 12.71 5.9 - -

Customer service representatives

 16.72 9.6 17.11 8.5 - -

Receptionists and information clerks

 13.90 16.7 - - - -

Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks

 11.98 5.2 12.43 4.4 - -

Stock clerks and order fillers

 11.44 9.0 - - - -

Secretaries and administrative assistants

 17.17 5.6 17.19 5.9 - -

Executive secretaries and administrative assistants

 20.54 1.6 - - - -

Secretaries, except legal, medical, and executive

 15.97 4.8 15.92 5.3 - -

Office clerks, general

15.05 8.7 14.49 9.4 - -

Construction and extraction occupations

 20.94 6.1 21.08 5.5 - -

Electricians

 20.05 3.5 20.05 3.5 - -

Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations

 22.31 9.4 22.31 9.4 - -

Industrial machinery installation, repair, and maintenance workers

 16.89 4.2 16.89 4.2 - -

Line installers and repairers

 29.49 12.2 29.49 12.2 - -

Production occupations

 15.95 5.5 16.24 5.7 11.40 7.8

Miscellaneous production workers

 15.15 6.6 15.78 6.7 - -

Transportation and material moving occupations

 16.11 6.8 16.82 7.8 13.35 11.4

Driver/sales workers and truck drivers

 19.58 7.3 19.58 7.3 - -

Truck drivers, heavy and tractor trailer

 20.47 4.5 20.47 4.5 - -

Laborers and material movers, hand

 11.49 8.9 11.75 8.8 10.73 16.5

Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand

 12.55 8.8 12.75 9.3 - -

Packers and packagers, hand

 8.91 3.5 - - - -

1 Earnings are the straight-time hourly wages or salaries paid to employees. They include incentive pay, cost-of-living adjustments, and hazard pay. Excluded are premium pay for overtime, vacations, holidays, nonproduction bonuses, and tips. The mean is computed by totaling the pay of all workers and dividing by the number of workers, weighted by hours.

2 Employees are classified as working either a full-time or a part-time schedule based on the definition used by each establishment. Therefore, a worker with a 35-hour-per-week schedule might be considered a full-time employee in one establishment, but classified as part-time in another firm, where a 40-hour week is the minimum full-time schedule.

3 Workers are classified by occupation using the 2000 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system.

4 The relative standard error (RSE) is the standard error expressed as a percent of the estimate. It can be used to calculate a "confidence interval" around a sample estimate.

SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or that data did not meet publication criteria. Overall occupational groups may include data for categories not shown separately.


Last Modified Date: April 10, 2009