Innovation
Average Wage Per Job
Description: The average wage is a measure of individual economic well-being of those working in wage and salary jobs. It is calculated from wage and salary disbursements and wage and salary employment.
Annual data are presented on the dashboard for 1969 through 2005 for the United States, Arizona, and the state’s 15 counties. Unadjusted and inflation-adjusted dollars are presented, as well as the inflation-adjusted percent change and the percentage of the national average. The data are inflation adjusted using the gross domestic product (GDP) implicit price deflator. The inflation-adjusted dollars are expressed in terms of the latest year of data available.
Rationale: An innovative environment should lead to improvements in productivity, which in turn should result in increases in prosperity. The average wage is a more narrow measure of individual economic well-being than the income indicators. Conceptually, it should be the most responsive to changes in local economic policy. However, its usefulness is substantially limited by excluding the earnings of proprietors and by not adjusting for the number of hours worked.
Data Sources: U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis through the Regional Economic Information System. The average wage is available from Table CA34 http://www.bea.gov/regional/reis/default.cfm?catable=CA34§ion=2. The GDP implicit price deflator is available from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis http://www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/SelectTable.asp?Selected=Y (Table 1.1.9).
Comments on the Quality of the Data: The employment data do not distinguish between full- and part-time employment. Thus, the average wage has not been adjusted for those jobs in which more or less than 40 hours per week are worked. Proprietors are not included.
