Bureau of Labor Statistics releases compensation survey

The survey outlines mean hourly earnings for about 800 full-time and part-time occupations. The $15.18 per hour represents all local workers who aren’t self-employed, federally employed or employed on farms.

Full-time workers average $16.17 per hour, according to the survey. While that’s down 7 percent from a $17.33 average last year, Linda Nickisch, an economist with the bureau’s Kansas City office, said there’s nothing to worry about.

Nickisch called the data a “snapshot” that can’t be compared from year-to-year. Different companies were surveyed this year from last year. For this survey, information was collected between March 2006 and April 2007 by BLS economists at 276 establishments in Greene, Christian and Webster counties, Nickisch said.

Nickisch couldn’t release the names of the establishments that participated in the National Compensation Survey, but she said they collectively represent about 170,000 workers, and 89 percent are employed in private industry.

Private industry workers earn an average of $14.50 an hour and work about 35 hours a week, the survey says. State and local government workers earn an average of $21.24 and hour and work 36 hours a week.

Nickisch said the wage data are helpful to individuals and companies wanting to gauge how they stack up in a given market.

“It’ll give them an idea, if they want to relocate to Springfield, what kind of wages and salaries are they going to need to pay in order to attract employees,” Nickisch said.

When Bentonville, Ark.-based Arvest Bank was opening its Springfield branch in early June at 1435 E. Bradford Parkway, manager Michal Moss Early said she requested Springfield salary data from her human resources department to use when hiring people.

“As a new business, you want to be competitive,” she said.

Union wages are generally more competitive than nonunion wages, according to the survey, which shows union wages averaging $16.39 an hour and nonunion wages averaging $15.08 an hour.

Ryan Mooney, manager of business development for Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, said he routinely uses BLS wage information.

A couple of weeks ago, for example, he spoke with an unnamed company about local pay for information technology professionals.

So who earns the most money on average? Workers in the “general and operations managers” category, who make an average of $59.27 an hour or $147,000 per year, the survey shows. Those folks work an average of 48 hours per week.

Mooney said he appreciates the reliability of BLS statistics, because the information is collected by the federal government using uniform collection methods.

“It’s an apples-to-apples comparison,” he said.

John Hancock, director of recruiting for Springfield trucking firm Prime Inc., said his company offers pay right in line with the survey results. Hancock estimated most Prime drivers earn $40,000 to $50,000 a year. The National Compensation Survey says Springfield-area workers in the “truck drivers, heavy and tractor-trailer” category average $40,689 a year.

The survey doesn’t compare wages in Springfield with wages in other MSAs. The most recent comparison is BLS’ Occupational Pay Relative report in 2005. That report showed pay in Springfield about 10 percent lower than the national average. Management, business and financial jobs had 14 percent lower wages than the national average.

The national average hourly wage is $19.29, according to the nationwide version of the Compensation Survey, and all workers average 35 hours of work per week.

What Does it Pay?

A sample of mean earnings per hour in the Springfield Metropolitan Service Area for full-time workers in private industry, according to the June 2006 National Compensation Survey*:

Management, business and financial – $25.73

Engineers – $25.65

Registered nurses – $24.07

Computer and mathematical science – $20.74

Electricians – $15.54

Retail sales – $11.05

Food service (tipped) – $2.88

*The full report is available at www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/sp/ncbl0918.pdf

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics[[In-content Ad]]