For release: Thursday, June 3, 2010
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Highlights of Birmingham-Hoover, Ala.

National Compensation Survey – February 2010

Workers in the Birmingham metropolitan area earned an average of $18.98 per hour in February 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, according to new survey results from the National Compensation Survey (NCS). Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that wage data were reported for workers in a wide range of occupational groups, including average hourly earnings of $15.89 for sales and related occupations and $14.80 for office and administrative support occupations. Another occupational group, healthcare support occupations, had a mean hourly wage rate of $11.97. The NCS data available for the Birmingham area include earnings for 18 major occupational groups with additional detail for selected occupations within those groups. (See table 1.)

Cashiers, part of the sales and related occupational group, earned $12.39 per hour. Executive secretaries and administrative assistants, an occupation within the office and administrative support occupational group, averaged $20.20 per hour, while bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks earned $19.62 per hour. Within the healthcare support occupational group, nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants earned $10.35 per hour. (See table 1.)

Broad coverage of selected occupational characteristics is available from NCS for the local area. Full-time workers averaged $20.27 per hour while their part-time counterparts earned $11.08. Union workers earned $24.65 and non-union workers, $18.64. Workers in establishments with 1-99 employees averaged $15.38 per hour, those in establishments with 100-499 employees earned $18.58 per hour, while those in establishments with 500 or more employees averaged $24.66.

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/home.htm.

The NCS data reported here covered 151 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 438,400 workers in the Birmingham Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which is comprised of Bibb, Blount, Chilton, Jefferson, St. Clair, Shelby, and Walker Counties in Alabama. 

Survey Availability

Complete survey results are contained in the Birmingham-Hoover, Ala. National Compensation Survey, February 2010, 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 data, as well as other Bureau data, contact the Southeast Information Office by calling (404) 893-4222 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET. 

Table 1. Civilian workers: Mean hourly earnings(1) for full-time and part-time workers(2), Birmingham-Hoover, AL, February 2010
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

 $18.98 4.8 $20.27 5.3 $11.08 8.8

Management occupations

 41.95 10.5 42.48 10.3 – –

Business and financial operations occupations

 25.49 6.1 25.49 6.1 – –

Accountants and auditors

 25.52 11.8 25.52 11.8 – –

Computer and mathematical science occupations

 32.24 3.8 32.24 3.8 – –

Architecture and engineering occupations

 33.77 4.1 33.77 4.1 – –

Community and social services occupations

 21.56 15 – – – –

Education, training, and library occupations

 28.62 2.6 30.05 4.3 – –

Postsecondary teachers

 32.80 7.8 32.80 7.8 – –

Primary, secondary, and special education school teachers

 30.62 5.9 30.99 5.7 – –

Elementary and middle school teachers

 32.23 6.5 32.23 6.5 – –

Secondary school teachers

 30.92 6.6 30.92 6.6 – –

Secondary school teachers, except special and vocational education

 29.37 8.9 29.37 8.9 – –

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations

 18.03 12.2 – – – –

Healthcare practitioner and technical occupations

 24.28 5.3 25.97 8.6 21.08 2.7

Registered nurses

 29.41 3.8 30.21 7 – –

Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses

 18.26 3.6 19.21 3.9 – –

Healthcare support occupations

 11.97 7.1 12.80 6.1 – –

Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides

 10.35 3.6 – – – –

Nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants

 10.35 3.6 – – – –

Protective service occupations

 19.52 7.3 20.70 6.7 – –

Food preparation and serving related occupations

 6.69 6.4 8.55 1.8 5.91 13.5

Cooks

 8.42 4.4 – – – –

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations

 8.20 4.3 8.29 5.5 – –

Building cleaning workers

 8.19 4.4 8.27 5.7 – –

Sales and related occupations

 15.89 9.3 17.08 8.2 8.66 2.9

Retail sales workers

 12.53 4.4 13.82 5.4 8.66 2.9

Cashiers, all workers

 12.39 9.7 – – – –

Cashiers

 12.39 9.7 – – – –

Office and administrative support occupations

 14.80 4.2 15.19 4.3 11.51 10.9

Financial clerks

 16.80 4.3 17.00 4.4 – –

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

 19.62 6.4 20.05 6.3 – –

Customer service representatives

 15.46 12 15.46 12 – –

Receptionists and information clerks

 11.44 9.3 – – – –

Secretaries and administrative assistants

 17.49 5.4 17.64 5.6 – –

Executive secretaries and administrative assistants

 20.20 7.7 20.20 7.7 – –

Office clerks, general

 15.71 2.8 16.07 3.5 – –

Construction and extraction occupations

 16.39 8.6 16.39 8.6 – –

Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations

 20.94 11.1 20.99 11.3 – –

Industrial machinery installation, repair, and maintenance workers

 17.21 7.7 17.21 7.7 – –

Production occupations

 15.29 3.2 15.36 3.3 – –

Transportation and material moving occupations

 13.72 5.6 14.22 6.3 11.59 3.3

Driver/sales workers and truck drivers

 12.85 13.3 13.15 13.3 – –

Truck drivers, light or delivery services

 12.31 15.6 – – – –

Laborers and material movers, hand

 11.83 12.1 12.56 16.8 – –

Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand

 12.25 12 – – – –

Footnotes:
(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.

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: June 3, 2010