Introduction
Research
& Planning (R&P), a section of the Department of Employment, in
cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), has conducted an
Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) Wage Survey since 1996. The OES
program produces occupational employment and wage estimates that have many
uses. For example, wage information helps employers determine if they are
offering competitive wages. Employment and training organizations (such as
community colleges), vocational counselors, and individuals use wage data to
assist students in making career decisions.
In
November 2002, the OES survey changed from an annual survey to a semiannual
survey. The OES survey samples and contacts establishments in May and November
of each year. The OES Wage Survey is conducted by mail. Data obtained are used
to estimate occupational employment and wage rates for Unemployment Insurance
(UI) covered wage and salary jobs in non-farm establishments.
Wages
for the OES Wage Survey include base pay rates, cost-of-living allowances,
guaranteed pay, hazard pay, incentive pay, commissions, piece rates and
production bonuses, length-of-service allowances, on-call pay, and
portal-to-portal pay. Items excluded from the survey are back pay, jury-duty
pay, overtime pay, severance pay, shift differentials, vacation pay, Christmas
bonuses, holiday or weekend pay, attendance bonuses, meal and lodging
allowances, merchandise discounts, non-production bonuses, profit-sharing
distributions, relocation allowances, stock bonuses, tool allowances, tuition
reimbursements, and uniform allowances. Data from tips were not collected prior
to 1999. Tip data are incorporated into the hourly estimates. The OES Wage
Survey does not include benefit data.
The
hourly wage estimates in this publication are calculated using a year-round,
full-time figure of 2,080 hours per year (52 weeks times 40 hours). Occupations
that typically have a work year of less than 2,080 hours (such as musical and
entertainment occupations, flight attendants, pilots, and teachers) are
reported only as an annual wage.
Wage
information found in this publication may be used in conjunction with related
information from Wages
and Benefits in Wyoming-2005 to get a picture of total
compensation. Benefit information is not available by occupation but is
compiled by major industry, firm size, and regions in
Every
state conducts an identical OES wage survey using standard techniques. This
facilitates comparison of data among states, as well as comparisons with
national figures. National and state wage estimates are located on the BLS website. Each state's labor market
information agency may also conduct and publish supplementary wage or benefit
surveys, occupational licensing information, statewide and localized employment
information, and staffing pattern data, which can be found on its respective
website. Research & Planning's website provides links to most of these
sites on our Other Resources
page.
Section II: Industry Publication of Wages
In
2002, the OES survey switched from using the Standard Industrial Classification
(SIC) system to using the North American Industry Classification System
(NAICS). Due to differences in NAICS and SIC structures, OES industry data for
2003 are not comparable with the SIC-based data for earlier years. For more
information about NAICS, see the BLS
Web site. For purposes of classification, an establishment is defined as an
economic unit that processes goods or provides services, such as a factory,
store, or mine. The establishment is generally at a single physical location
and is engaged primarily in one type of economic activity.
The
OES survey covers all full- and part-time wage and salary workers in non-farm
industries. The survey does not include the self-employed owners and partners
in unincorporated firms, household workers, or unpaid family workers.
The
OES survey includes establishments in NAICS sectors listed below. Data for the
U.S. Postal Service and the federal government are universe counts obtained
from the Postal Service and the Office of Personnel Management, respectively.
Goods-Producing |
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Natural
resources and mining |
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Sector
11 (Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting) |
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Sector
21 (Mining) |
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Construction |
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Sector
23 (Construction) |
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Manufacturing |
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Sector
31-33 (Manufacturing) |
Service-Providing
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Trade,
transportation, and utilities |
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Sector
42 (Wholesale trade) |
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Sector
44-45 (Retail trade) |
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Sector
48-49 (Transportation and warehousing) |
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Sector
22 (Utilities) |
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Information |
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Sector
51 (Information) |
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Financial
activities |
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Sector
52 (Finance and insurance) |
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Sector
53 (Real estate and rental and leasing) |
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Professional
and business services |
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Sector
54 (Professional, scientific, and technical services) |
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Sector
55 (Management of companies and enterprises) |
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Sector
56 (Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services) |
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Education
and health services |
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Sector
61 (Education services) |
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Sector
62 (Health care and social assistance) |
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Leisure
and hospitality |
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Sector
71 (Arts, entertainment, and recreation) |
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Sector
72 (Accommodation and food services) |
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Other
services |
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Sector
81 (Other services, except public administration) |
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Public
administration |
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Sector
92 (Public administration) |
BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while
the states collect the data. BLS produces cross-industry NAICS estimates for
the nation, states, and metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). NAICS estimates
are produced primarily at the 4-digit level. BLS releases all cross-industry
and national estimates, and the states release industry estimates at the state,
county and MSA levels. The OES survey defines employment as the number of
workers who can be classified as full-time or part-time employees, including
workers on paid vacations or other types of leave; workers on unpaid short-term
absences; salaried officers, executives, and staff members of incorporated
firms; employees temporarily assigned to other units; and employees for whom
the reporting unit is their permanent duty station regardless of whether that
unit prepares their paycheck. Research & Planning has provided several
extensions to the official OES data series (which have been developed in
cooperation with the BLS). These additional products have not been validated by
the BLS and are not, therefore, official BLS data series. Research &
Planning feels, however, that they provide additional information that is
useful to the users of R&P data.
Section III: Method of Collection
In
1999, the OES Wage Survey began using the Office of Management and Budget’s
occupational classification system--the Standard
Occupational Classification (SOC) system. The SOC classification system
allows government statistical agencies and others to produce data using a
common classification system. Prior to the SOC system, Federal agencies
collecting occupational data used a variety of systems that were not
necessarily compatible with one another.
In
the SOC system, all workers are classified in one of over 820 occupations
according to their occupational definition. To facilitate classification,
occupations are combined to form 23 major, 96 minor, and 449 broad groups of
occupations requiring similar job duties, skills, education, or experience.
Classification Principles of the SOC
Coding System
In
order to ensure that all users of occupational data classify workers in the
same way, the following classification principles should be followed:
1.
The classification covers all occupations in which work is performed for pay or
profit, including work performed in family-operated enterprises by family
members who are not directly compensated. It excludes occupations unique to
volunteers. Each occupation is assigned to only one occupational category at
the lowest level of the classification.
2.
Occupations are classified based on work performed and on required skills,
education, training, and credentials.
3.
Supervisors of professional and technical workers usually have a background
similar to those of the workers they supervise and therefore are classified
with the workers they supervise. Likewise, team leaders, lead workers, and
supervisors of production, sales, and service workers who spend at least twenty
percent of their time performing work similar to the workers they supervise are
classified with the workers they supervise.
4.
First-line managers and supervisors of production, service, and sales workers
who spend more than eighty percent of their time performing supervisory
activities are classified separately in the appropriate supervisor category
because their work activities are distinct from those of the workers they
supervise. First-line managers are generally found in smaller establishments where
they perform both supervisory and management functions, such as accounting,
marketing, and personnel work.
5.
Apprentices and trainees are classified with the occupations for which they are
being trained, while helpers and aides are classified separately.
6.
If an occupation is not included as a distinct detailed occupation in the
structure, it is classified in the appropriate residual occupation. Residual
occupations contain all occupations within a major, minor, or broad group that
are not classified separately.
7.
When workers can be classified in more than one occupation, they should be
classified in the occupation that requires the higher skill level. When there
is no perceptible difference in skill level, the worker should be classified in
the occupation that describes their primary activity.
8.
Data collection and reporting agencies should classify workers at the most
detailed level possible. Different agencies may use different levels of
aggregation, depending on their ability to collect data and on the requirements
of users.
Section IV: Geographic Coverage of
Estimates
The
data for
Occupational
Employment Statistics Area Map
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Section
V: Estimation Technique
The
OES Wage Survey estimates were calculated using information from the May and
November 2005, May and November 2004, May and November 2003, and November 2002
panels. Using three or more years of data reduces sampling error, particularly
for small geographic areas and less common occupations. However, this technique
also requires the adjustment of prior data to the current reference period.
This procedure is referred to as "wage updating." Estimates from the
BLS Federal/State Cooperative OES program are produced for the most recent
survey reference period that includes the 12th of the month. The BLS validated
the results found in this publication. For wage updating purposes, the BLS uses
the national wage changes for the nine occupational divisions for which Employment Cost Index
(ECI) estimates are available. This procedure assumes that each occupation's
wage, as measured in each year, moves according to the average movement of its
occupational division and that there are no major geographic or detailed
occupational differences. In the BLS estimates, ECI factors were applied to the
prior panels.
Research
& Planning has used wage updating factors, for later time periods, to
further update the data from all three survey years to a more current time
period, subsequent to the most recent OES Survey reference period—Fourth
Quarter 2005. As a result, wage-updating
factors have been applied to all of the data included in these estimates. The
updated data contained in this report are not official BLS data series, nor
have they been validated by the BLS. The employment estimates for each
occupation are based on the total number of jobs worked reported as part of the
UI Covered Employment and Wages program. The BLS technical notes
relating to the OES Wage Survey include the scope of the survey, an explanation
of the UI Covered Employment and Wage program, occupational classification of
22 major occupational groups, size class, and hourly intervals.
Section VI: Wage Survey Definitions
*
Annual Wages - Wages for certain occupations having a work year of
less than 2,080 hours are reported as an annual salary.
Employment
- Represents the jobs worked for wages, salaries, commissions, or tips from a
private employer, a non-profit employer, or a governmental unit. This is the
estimate of the number of jobs worked in an occupation across the industries in
which it was reported. These numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.
Mean
Wage - The estimated total wages for an occupation divided by
its weighted survey employment. A measure of central tendency. If some values
are far removed from the others (outlying), they can substantially influence
the mean.
Mean
of the Lower One-Third - Mean of the lower one-third of
wage distribution. (Previously reported as Entry Level Wage).
Mean
of the Upper Two-Thirds - Mean of the upper two-thirds of
wage distribution. (Previously reported as Experienced Level Wage).
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Percentile
Wage Estimates - A percentile wage estimate shows
the percentage of jobs worked in an occupation that earn less than a given wage
and the percentage that earn more.
The
following Figure shows the statewide hourly wage for all occupations by
percentile:
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25th
Percentile - 25 percent of jobs worked in an occupation are paid
wages below $9.10 and 75 percent are paid wages above $9.10.
50th
Percentile (Median) - The estimated 50th percentile of
the wage distribution; 50 percent of jobs worked in an occupation are paid
wages below $13.31 and 50 percent are paid wages above $13.31.
75th
Percentile - 75 percent of jobs worked in an occupation are paid
wages below $20.44 and 25 percent are paid wages above $20.44.
Metropolitan
Statistical Area (MSA) - A county or group of adjoining
counties that contain at least one urbanized area of 50,000 inhabitants or
more.
Occupational
Title - A short title describing each occupation.
Standard
Occupational Classification (SOC) Code - A six-digit
code that identifies occupations as defined by the SOC classification system.