Survey reveals Springfield area's average wage

The average worker in the Springfield metropolitan statistical area makes $15.38 per hour as of September 2007, up only 1.3 percent from $15.18 per hour in 2006. (Click here for the complete 2007 and 2006 surveys: Springfield Compensation Survey September 2007 |

Springfield Compensation Survey September 2006.)

Full-time workers make $16.32 an hour, or $33,275 annually, up just 0.9 percent from the year before.

The survey, which covers Greene, Christian, Polk, Dallas and Webster counties, also breaks down numbers into general occupational categories; management workers, for example, average $31.13 an hour – roughly $68,000 a year – while workers in construction and extraction bring home $16.86 hourly, about $34,000 annually.

Kevin Ausburn, chairman and CEO of Springfield-based SMC Packaging Group, said his company was one that participated in the survey. He said that information from BLS, along with other organizations, helps his company.

“We participate in statewide surveys, trade industry surveys and other sources,” Ausburn said. “All that information gets factored in to our decisions about being in the right ballpark on what to pay our employees.”

Workers in the production industry earn $13.70 an hour according to the survey, and Ausburn said that’s generally in line with what SMC Packaging pays its employees.

Putting the numbers to use

Robert Wyatt, director of Drury University’s Breech School of Business, said that national benchmark surveys can be useful for companies.

“This is a standard benchmark for companies to compare against. It can be one thing you consider in your compensation strategic plan,” Wyatt said. “I think in every company, workers will say they wish they made more money.”

While annual growth of about 1 percent may look like an indicator of stagnant wages in the Ozarks, BLS Kansas City Economist Linda Nickisch said the survey is just that – a snapshot of a few hundred companies in each MSA – and shouldn’t necessarily be used as a year-to-year comparison.

“If we had gone into the very same establishments and selected the same jobs, you could compare one year to the next,” Nickisch said, noting that 260 companies were surveyed for the latest information. “But because of the sampling, and because establishments enter or exit the list, you can’t compare one year to the next.”

Nickisch said a better source of comparison is the quarterly Employer Cost Index, which lists Midwest wage increases at 2.6 percent during the year ended in March. That figure, however, still doesn’t keep up with the rate of inflation, which BLS puts at about 4.5 percent during the same period.

Other benchmarks

Some local business experts downplayed the importance of the compensation survey for their uses.

Ryan Mooney, vice president of business development with the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber uses other Labor Department data such as the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates much more often than it uses the compensation survey. The reason: Occupational data is much more detailed about specific job titles.

“If we’re working with a prospective company, they know that they need to employ this many with this job title and this many with this title, and with the occupational information, they know what they have to pay to be competitive,” Mooney said.

The production sector, for example, lists 51 different job categories, ranging from “grinding and polishing workers” to “upholsterers” to “printing machine operators.” According to the BLS Occupational survey, the average hourly wage for Springfield area production jobs is $13.13, compared to $13.70 per hour average reported in the BLS National Compensation Survey.

Another data source used often by the chamber, Mooney said, is the per capita income information from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Those data show Springfield per capita income at $28,518 as of 2006, up 2.4 percent from 2005. That percentage growth, however, lags well behind both the state average of 4.3 percent and the national average of 5.6 percent during the same period.

The Compensation Data Missouri survey, released June 18, offers another mark for comparison: estimated budgets for pay increases among state companies.

The survey reported pay-increase budgets for Missouri companies of 3.52 percent for 2008 and 3.55 percent for 2009; the numbers are indicative of a national trend of stagnant pay increases, according to Olathe, Kan.-based survey publisher Compdata Surveys.

Income growth is the chamber’s main objective, Mooney said. He added that while the chamber has worked to add new businesses – specifically in the traditionally high-paying manufacturing sector – much of the organization’s work boils down to creating a positive climate for business.

“If we’re able to make those overall positive impacts on the business climate little by little, that helps raise the income levels because businesses are successful,” he said.

SMC’s Ausburn added that he appreciates surveys that offer information specific to the Springfield area.

“We put more emphasis on local salary results, for what businesses in this area are paying their employees, because that’s who we’re competing against for work force,” he said.

SBJ.net Poll

The average hourly wage in Springfield is $16.32, or $33,275 per year for full-time workers. Do you earn more or less?

Vote at sbj.net/poll.

Other Wage Resources

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates: www.bls.gov/oes/oes_data.htm

Bureau of Economic Analysis: www.bea.gov

Compensation Data Missouri: www.compdatasurveys.com