Competitive Wage Ranking:
Retaining Wyoming's Workforce
by: Carol Kjar, Senior Statistician
"Despite an increase in real annual wages in the state, Wyoming's average weekly wages remain among the lowest in the nation."
In the January 2000 issue of Wyoming Labor Force Trends, we reported that Unemployment Insurance (UI) covered employment and total payroll for the second quarter of 1999 had increased over the same quarter in 1998.1 In December 1999, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the 1998 Employment and Wages Annual Averages publication which listed the average weekly wages for all the states. The objective of this article is to put these recently released data into historic context and determine whether pay in Wyoming is more or less competitive since the beginning of the decade.
The Table shows the nominal and real average weekly wages across the United States for the years 1990, 1996 and 1998.2 The states' real wages are ranked from highest to lowest. In 1990, Wyoming's real wages were ranked 37th in the nation. Over the next six years, our ranking fell to 45th and continues to remain at that level. Of the six states adjacent to Wyoming, four (Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska and Idaho) are among the nine lowest average weekly wages paid in the nation.
The 1990 Covered Employment and Wages publication reported that there were 18,314 Mining jobs and 11,743 Transportation, Communications, & Public Utilities (TCPU) jobs in Wyoming. These two industries also had the highest average weekly wages of all the industries in the state.3 In the 1998 Covered Employment and Wages publication, Mining jobs had decreased by 1,478 jobs and TCPU had fallen by 636 jobs since 1990.4 The loss of the high wage jobs and the increase in lower paying jobs5 have contributed to the lower average weekly wage and, consequently, have pulled Wyoming down to 46th place in the nation.
Despite an increase in real annual wages in the state, Wyoming's average weekly wages remain among the lowest in the nation. Based on the pattern shown in the Table, Wyoming's competitive wage ranking has remained constant since 1996 when compared to the rest of the nation. Also, since 1996, Wyoming has had an increasing net out-migration.6 The low real wages may account for part of the problem of population and labor force retention.
1 Craig Henderson, "Covered Employment and Wages for Second Quarter 1999", Wyoming Labor Force Trends, January 2000.
2 Nominal wages are given in current dollars, that is 1990 wages are stated in 1990 dollars. Real wages are adjusted for inflation and stated in constant dollars. Adjusting for inflation allows us to compare the purchasing power of wages from different time periods.
3 1990-1991 Annual Covered Employment for the State of Wyoming, Research & Planning, Wyoming Department of Employment.
4 Where are the Jobs? What Do They Pay? 1998 Annual Covered Employment & Wages, Research & Planning, Wyoming Department of Employment.
5 David Bullard, "A Decade of Employment Growth in Wyoming: 1988-1998," Figure 1, Wyoming Labor Force Trends, February 2000.
6 Press Release, February 8, 2000, Division of Economic Analysis, Department of Administration and Information.
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