If you want to stay competitive in how you attract and retain employees, you have to pay attention to changes and trends related to pay in the markets where you’re recruiting and across the nation. After all, details on salary/compensation packages is the #1 piece of information people want employers to provide as they research where to work (Glassdoor.com site survey, August 2016). With market level salary data at their fingertips from tools like Know Your Worth, it’s more important than ever to remain competitive and watch how pay is trending in your area.
The monthly Glassdoor Local Pay Reports help you stay current with pay trends in the United States and ten major metros: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. In addition to overall metro data, we provide a view into how salaries have grown or declined for more than 60 job titles across multiple industries compared to last year.
Staying on top of national and local pay trends will help you retain employees and improve offer acceptance rates – and that includes the annual pay increase. According to the April 2017 Glassdoor Local Pay Reports, U.S. median base pay continues to show stable year-over-year growth of 2.7%. Here are some additional highlights from the April 2017 report.
Wages by Metro
Depending on what city you’re in, wages are going to be rising at different rates. That could be due to a variety of factors – the makeup of the local workforce, trends in local industry, the unemployment rate, and relocation trends. Check our local reports for the pay in your city compared to the national median, and examine additional factors like job openings, the labor force size, total employment and the unemployment rate to put the pay data into context for your metro. This information will help you determine if your pay trends are current and inform how much you need to emphasize other benefits if you don’t have the budget for higher compensation.
- The largest year-over-year gains this April were seen in Los Angeles, where median full time base pay is $59,639, up 3.8% compared to April 2016. Seattle was the second fastest growing city for wages, at 3.1% growth and a median wage of $59,585.
- Weakest wage growth showed up in Houston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.: median base pay is up 2.7% YOY to $51,350, compared to 1.0% growth in Houston to $54,410, 1.6% growth in Philadelphia to $54,408, and 2.0% growth in Washington, D.C. to $58,482.
Pay changes by job
For the jobs where pay is rising faster than the national average, you may have to recruit harder for those roles. You may also need to revisit the compensation of your current employees to keep them from leaving for more money elsewhere. To learn more about how to talk to employees about salary, download Glassdoor’s Guide to Salary Conversations.
In April, year-over-year wage growth for retail jobs was higher than the national average. Make sure you stay current with wages in retail to reduce attrition in this historically high-turnover industry.
- Store manager pay rose 6.6% in April 2017 to $48,848; cashier wages grew 5% to $27,582; and retail key holder pay rose 4.2% to $29,6215.
- Other jobs with big pay gains in April 2017 were customer service manager (7.4% growth), recruiter (6.9% growth), and warehouse associate (6.3% growth). If you’re hiring in these roles, make sure you don’t lowball top talent!
Jobs for which pay growth is slow could mean that workers in these groups are focused on other attributes of a company such as commute, culture or opportunities to grow. If you're not offering more money, are you offering a better experience?
- Biggest Declines or Slowest Growth: The jobs with the biggest declines or slowest growth in the U.S. in April 2017 include design engineer (-0.3% growth), web developer (-0.1% growth), operations analyst (0.2% growth), and maintenance worker (0.4% growth).
Going forward, we’ll be publishing highlights from these reports each month. Stay tuned for current wage data insights that you won’t find elsewhere. To find out more about the full methodology, including how salaries are estimated, click here.
