Survey unveils average wages in Springfield

The average hourly wage for all jobs in the Springfield metropolitan area is $15.83, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics National Compensation Survey released this summer.

So what does that mean to area business executives? Not much when it comes to determining employee salaries.

"To most of us, that is nebulous because we don't fight on a level playing field," said Jack Stack, CEO of SRC Holdings Corp. "What's really important for us is to look at how well we're paying within our industry."

For those numbers, many executives consider data from industry-specific surveys. The survey, however, was limited to businesses with more than 50 employees.

Data from this latest wage survey may be helpful for businesses looking to move into the area, said Ryan Mooney, Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce business development manager.

"They usually want to know (average wages) it for one of two things: What are they going to have to pay if they come here? And the other one is the comparison aspect," Mooney said. "If they need labor (costs) to be within a certain range, they're going to look at all the cities that they are considering and use this Bureau of Labor Statistics data and have a level playing field."

The chamber uses more than one wage study when presenting such information, Mooney said, including an Associated Industries of Missouri survey and another Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, the Metropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.

Findings

According to the National Compensation Survey, the highest-paid position in the Springfield metropolitan area, which at the time of the survey included Greene, Christian and Webster counties, is education administrators. The survey reports that education administrators' average hourly wage is $39.24, or $70,632 annually.

When factoring in other white-collar jobs, the average hourly pay for white-collar workers is more than $2 higher than that for blue-collar workers. The survey reported that local white-collar jobs, which comprised 49 percent of the workers surveyed, paid $17.82 per hour on average, compared to blue-collar jobs, representing 35 percent of the work force, that earned $15.65 hourly. Service occupations earned $9.24 an hour and accounted for the remainder of the work force surveyed.

In all, the survey covered 159 firms representing 69,500 workers from establishments employing 50 workers or more in goods-producing industries, service industries and state and local government.

Government jobs paid substantially more on average: $19.17 per hour, versus $15.16 hourly in private industry.

Executives at Positronic Industries use the survey data to see how their pay rates compare to others.

"We find (wage surveys) useful," said John Gentry, Positronic Industries president. "We look at our wage and benefits and we look at the surveys, and then we make a conscious decision whether we think we fit where we want to."

But that doesn't necessarily result in increased compensation. Until last March, Positronic employees were working under a wage freeze. Gentry said the company implemented the wage freeze in 2001 following the telecommunications and Internet downturn.

As a result, wages are below the industry norm. "Are wages up right now? In general, no," Gentry said. "And in many cases they are down from two years ago."

The majority of employees at the electronics manufacturing plant are assemblers. Gentry said Positronic's pay rates for assemblers is "somewhat below" the survey's average rate of $11.53.

Although employers with less than 50 personnel were not sampled in the survey, U.S. Small Business Administration SCORE Counselor Roger Fitzwater said the survey may still apply to small-business owners.

"It could (help) if it provided information on entry level kinds of positions, mostly service-related type things," Fitzwater said. "That would be beneficial. If we had something like that here in our office to hand out that would be pertinent information. They could take their business plans and look at what a cashier is earning, and this is how I can plug these numbers into my business plan."

Data collection

Data was collected between March 2002 and April 2003; the average reference month is September 2002. Field economists of the Bureau of Labor Statistics collected and reviewed the data. A labor force of about 69,500 was surveyed.

The hourly wages presented are for straight-time occupational earnings, which include wages and salaries, incentive pay, cost-of-living adjustments and hazard pay. These earnings exclude premium pay for overtime, vacations, holidays, nonproduction bonuses and tips.

The complete National Compensation Survey is available online at www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/compub.htm.