Workers in the La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $30.18 in May 2025, compared to the nationwide average of $33.54, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($62.11), healthcare practitioners and technical ($58.51), legal ($46.73), and architecture and engineering ($46.19). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.37), personal care and service ($17.67), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.81). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment shares in the La Crosse area included office and administrative support (10.8 percent), transportation and material moving (9.9 percent), and food preparation and serving related (9.8 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.3 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.9 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.2 percent).

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. La Crosse had 9,150 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 10.8 percent of local area employment, compared to the 11.4-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $23.34, compared to the national wage of $24.79.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included general office clerks (1,500) and customer service representatives (1,200). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers ($33.46) and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants ($30.63). At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($16.29) and clerical library assistants ($18.07). (Detailed data for the office and administrative support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0029100/2025.)

Location quotients allow us to explore the occupational make-up of a metropolitan area by comparing the composition of jobs in an area relative to the national average. (See table 1.) For example, a location quotient of 2.00 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the La Crosse area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, tellers were employed at 1.77 times the national rate in La Crosse, and receptionists and information clerks, at 1.58 times the U.S. average. Postal service mail carriers had a location quotient of 1.00 in La Crosse, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, and the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 530 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels; and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology is available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 66.2 percent based on establishments and 67.2 percent based on weighted sampled employment. Sample sizes and response rates by metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area are available on the Additional OEWS data sets page.

Metropolitan area definitions

The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

The La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Houston County, MN; La Crosse County, WI; and Vernon County, WI.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for office and administrative support occupations, La Crosse metropolitan area, May 2025

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	9,150	0.95	23.34	48,550
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	540	0.69	33.46	69,590
Bill and account collectors	140	1.57	23.41	48,680
Billing and posting clerks	230	1.05	23.18	48,210
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	720	0.97	24.23	50,400
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	80	0.94	28.38	59,030
Procurement clerks	30	0.99	24.32	50,580
Tellers	320	1.77	19.91	41,410
Court, municipal, and license clerks	40	0.44	25.55	53,150
Customer service representatives	1,200	0.85	22.72	47,270
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	50	0.65	25.68	53,410
File clerks	30	0.87	21.67	45,080
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	180	1.29	16.29	33,890
Library assistants, clerical	50	1.05	18.07	37,580
Loan interviewers and clerks	160	1.74	23.12	48,090
New accounts clerks	80	4.16	24.08	50,090
Order clerks	30	0.80	23.75	49,400
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	40	0.84	23.52	48,930
Receptionists and information clerks	780	1.58	19.69	40,960
Information and record clerks, all other	60	0.85	17.80	37,020
Couriers and messengers	90	2.48	18.48	38,430
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	140	1.31	25.61	53,270
Postal service clerks	40	1.10	30.18	62,770
Postal service mail carriers	180	1.00	29.82	62,030
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	240	1.12	26.75	55,630
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	490	1.10	22.74	47,300
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	130	0.50	30.63	63,710
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	370	0.71	23.18	48,210
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	790	0.86	22.95	47,730
Data entry keyers	40	0.64	20.96	43,600
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	60	0.50	25.39	52,800
Office clerks, general	1,500	1.12	21.35	44,410
Office and administrative support workers, all other	50	0.48	21.61	44,950
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0029100/2025. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that are not shown separately. Estimates do not include self-employed workers. (3) The location quotient is the ratio of the area concentration of occupational employment to the national average concentration. A location quotient greater than one indicates the occupation has a higher share of employment than average, and a location quotient less than one indicates the occupation is less prevalent in the area than average. (4) Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a 'year-round, full-time' hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those occupations where there is not an hourly mean wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data.