Wages are growing, but some career fields are doing much better than others, according to the latest edition of the Glassdoor Local Pay Reports.
Overall, the pace of wage growth remains anemic, even though the economy has bounced back enough since the Great Recession that the Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark federal funds rate twice so far this year.
The latest Glassdoor statistics show that the median annual base pay for full-time workers reached $51,491 in September. That reflects a wage growth increase of 1.8 percent since September 2016.
September’s year-over-year increase is a smidgen better than that of August, 1.6 percent. But it’s still far from the peak wage growth of 3.5 percent seen in January.
Glassdoor’s chief economist, Andrew Chamberlain, notes in a blog post:
“At today’s sluggish rate of wage growth, it will take America roughly 40 years to double the nation’s median base pay.”
Glassdoor Local Pay Reports are based on an analysis of millions of salaries collected by the jobs data website.
The 10 jobs that saw the steepest rates of wage growth in September — and their median base pay — are:
- Barista: $24,305 — up 5.6 percent from one year ago
- Truck driver: $52,280 — up 5 percent
- Recruiter: $50,491 — up 4.8 percent
- Bank teller: $28,633 — up 4.3 percent
- Restaurant cook: $28,456 — up 4.3 percent
- Solutions architect: $102,184 — up 3.7 percent
- Business development manager: $69,503 — up 3.6 percent
- Store manager: $48,701 — up 3.5 percent
- Pharmacy technician: $30,688 — up 3.4 percent
- Web designer: $51,767 — up 3.4 percent
Despite seeing the fastest wage growth, however, baristas earned the lowest base pay of any job in the September report. Bank tellers and restaurant cooks were also among the 10 lowest-paying positions last month.
“Jobs with the highest pay growth aren’t always the ones with the highest earning potential,” Chamberlain writes in a blog post.
The 10 jobs with the highest earnings — and their median base pay and pay growth — are:
- Pharmacist: $127,506 — up 0.4 percent percent over the past year
- Solutions architect: $102,184 — up 3.7 percent
- Data scientist: $95,624 — up 0.6 percent
- Tax manager: $94,180 — 1.7 percent
- Attorney: $93,920 — down 1.9 percent
- Product manager: $91,035 — 1.2 percent
- Professor: $87,244 — 2.6 percent
- Software engineer: $85,806 — 2.7 percent
- Systems engineer: $78,514 — 1.8 percent
- UX designer: $77,994 — 1.2 percent
This list reflects a continuing trend. Chamberlain explains:
“Once again, three fields dominated the highest paying jobs in September: Healthcare, tech, and professional services. Pharmacist, solutions architect, and data scientist again topped our list as the jobs with highest U.S. median base pay in the September Local Pay Reports.”
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