Western Information Office

CONTACT: Media Interviews (415) 625-2245 (415) 625-2270 Internet address: http://www.bls.gov/ro9/ro9news.htm

BLS 08-19 FOR RELEASE: Friday, February 29, 2008

Workers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside metropolitan area earned an average of $22.32 per hour in April 2007, according to new survey results from the National Compensation Survey (NCS) released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Regional Commissioner Richard J. Holden noted that wage data were reported for workers in a wide range of occupational groups, including average hourly earnings of $39.94 for architecture and engineering occupations and $30.45 for business and financial operations. Another occupational group, transportation and material moving occupations, had a mean hourly wage rate of $15.75. The NCS data available for the Los Angeles area include earnings for 21 major occupational groups with additional detail for selected occupations within those groups. (See table 1.)

Engineers, part of the architecture and engineering occupational group, earned $49.06 per hour. Within the business and financial operations occupational group, accountants and auditors averaged $28.38 per hour and loan counselors and officers, $23.08. Bus drivers, an occupation within the transportation and material moving group, registered an average hourly rate of $18.95, and industrial truck and tractor operators earned $13.37 per hour.

Broad coverage of selected occupational characteristics is available from NCS for the local area. Full-time workers averaged $23.54 per hour while their part-time counterparts earned $13.30. Union workers earned $26.99 and non-union workers, $21.00. Workers in establishments with 1-99 workers averaged $19.06 per hour, those in establishments with 100-499 workers earned $21.19, and those in establishments with 500 or more employees earned $28.51.

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/.

The NCS data reported here covered 1,333 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 6,878,900 workers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside Combined Statistical Area (CSA) which is comprised of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura Counties in California.

Complete survey results are contained in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA National Compensation Survey April 2007 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 Western Information Office by calling (415) 625-2270 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. PT.

Please click here for a text formatted copy of the table issued with this release.

 

Last Modified Date: February 29, 2008