U.S. wages grow for eighth consecutive quarter: Report

San Francisco, San Diego, Austin lead the way

U.S. wages grow for eighth consecutive quarter: Report
Long-term wage growth is strongest in San Francisco, home of the Golden Gate Bridge, according to a report. Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

 

 

American wages have increased for eight consecutive quarters, according to Payscale, a cloud compensation data and software company.

Payscale released its second-quarter index today, tracking compensation trends and predicting a U.S. wage forecast for the coming quarter.

Wages increased 0.5 per cent this quarter and 2.4 per cent since last year. However, real wages were flat quarter-over-quarter, meaning the typical employee’s earning power is holding steady from a period of depressed and stagnant real wages from 2013 to 2015, said the report.

“Wages continue to experience modest growth with variability across industries, job families and metro areas,” said Katie Bardaro, vice-president of data analytics and lead economist at PayScale. “While the positive wage growth appears to be sustaining, real wages are again 7.5 per cent lower than they were in 2006, so the price of goods is growing faster than most employees’ wages.”

Long-term wage growth is strongest in San Francisco (3.8 per cent wage growth), San Diego, Austin and Denver (each 3.5 per cent).

Meanwhile, four Midwest cities experienced negative wage growth in quarter two including Detroit (-0.7 per cent), Kansas City (-0.3), Minneapolis and Chicago (-0.1 per cent).

Wage growth in Canada ticked slightly up relative to the past couple of quarters, currently at 13.8 per cent growth since 2006. Since that time, Toronto has experienced the least wage growth (9.7 per cent) while the oil city of Edmonton has experienced the most (23.7 per cent).

 

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