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© Copyright 1998 by the Wyoming Department of Employment, Research & Planning

Personal Income (PI) is a comprehensive measure of income. Personal income is made up of several components. The first component is wage and salary earnings, which is the income gained through employment. Wage information is obtained from the Wyoming Department of Employment, Research & Planning, ES-202 unit’s Annual Covered Employment and Wages report. The report includes state and county information about wages from jobs covered under Unemployment Insurance (UI). The results for each county for 1996 are available on the Research & Planning web site (http://lmi.state.wy.us/) and in hard copy from the Research & Planning office (refer to Credits for contact information).

Other labor and proprietor’s income is the second component of PI. Another major component of PI is dividends, interest and rent. Dividends are the earnings from investments. Rent refers to the money collected by the individual for the rental of real property. Also included in dividends, interest and rent are royalties from oil and gas leases. The final component of PI is transfer payments. Transfer payments are payments made to individuals without the exchange of goods or services, and include Veterans’ benefits, unemployment compensation, welfare payments, social security, pensions, etc.

The Figure shows the distribution of the components of PI for the United States, Wyoming and Teton County⁽¹⁾, Wyoming. Total PI for Wyoming in 1995 was $10,415,407. Wage and salary earnings make up the biggest percentage of PI for all geographical areas (United States, 53.5%; Wyoming, 50.4%; Teton County, 51.0%). Teton County depends proportionately less on wages and transfer payments for income than the United States and Wyoming. Transfer payments in Teton County constitute only 6.0 percent of PI, while transfer payments make up 16.0 percent of PI in the United States and 15.1 percent in Wyoming. Instead of transfer payments, Teton County PI relies on a larger proportion of dividends, interest and rent to complete PI. The proportion of Teton County’s income from dividends, interest and rent (24.9% of PI) is significantly higher when compared to the United States (16.5% of PI) and Wyoming (19.5% of PI).

Per capita income is the average personal income per person for the resident population (eg, the resident population for Teton County in 1995 was 13,373). Per capita income includes all transfer payments, dividends, interest and rent, other income and proprietor’s income, and wages and salaries of the resident population. Per capita income in 1995 for Teton County was $39,134 while Wyoming’s per capita income was $20,712.

On the other hand, the average annual wage (all UI covered employment divided by 13,658 workers⁽²⁾) for Teton County in 1995 was only $21,781 compared with $22,351 in Wyoming. Average annual wage is the sum of all wages divided by all workers. Commuters into Teton County are included in the county’s workforce. The average annual wage only accounts for 55.7 percent of per capita income in Teton County. In Wyoming and the United States, annual wages are responsible for 107.9 percent and 120.0 percent, respectively of per capita income. While wages in Teton County may be comparable to other counties in Wyoming, the differences in per capita income are significant because of the impact of non-wage sources on PI.

1 PI at the county level is only available for 1995 and prior years.

2 Includes a count of non-resident workers in contrast to labor force estimates.

Krista R. Shinkle is an Administrative Specialist with Research & Planning.

 

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