Comparisons of pay between metropolitan areas in 2008

In 2008, average pay for civilian workers in the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, California, metropolitan area was 19 percent above the national average. Average pay in the New York-Newark-Bridgeport, New York-New Jersey-Connecticut-Pennsylvania metropolitan area was 14 percent above the national average.

[Chart data—TXT]

The Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas, metropolitan area had a pay relative of 77, meaning workers earned an average of 77 cents for every dollar earned by workers nationwide. In the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area workers earned an average of 85 cents for every dollar earned by workers nationwide.

Using data from the National Compensation Survey, pay relatives—a means of assessing pay differences—are available for each of the nine major occupational groups within surveyed metropolitan areas, as well as averaged across all occupations for each area. They are available at www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/payrel.htm.

These data are from the BLS National Compensation Survey program. Learn more in "Occupational pay comparisons among metropolitan areas, 2008" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL 09-0843.