By | Morgan Smith | www.cnbc.com
Salaries have steadily increased across the United States over the past decade, but workers in some states are growing their pay at a faster rate than others, according to a new report from Approve.com.
The spending management software firm looked at salary information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and compared the average wage in 2010 for each state with the average wage in 2020. Researchers found that some places saw a nearly 50% jump in their workers’ salaries while others saw only a 25% increase.
According to the BLS, the average wage for all Americans rose 27% between 2010 and 2020, from $44,410 to $56,310. Four states with the highest-growing salaries top this average wage: Washington, California, Massachusetts and Oregon.
Bureau of Labor Statistics Division Chief Michael Wolf tells CNBC Make It that there are several factors inflating workers’ salaries in these states, including the addition of new, high-paying occupations in the technology and healthcare fields and the loss of low-paying jobs such as retail and restaurant employees during the pandemic.
