Pay in Southern California rose at a nation-leading 4.8% annual rate in the 12 months ended in March as some bosses paid up to keep businesses running in the pandemic era.
The Employment Cost Index tracks changes in what workers cost employers. Wage hikes in the region of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura counties were up from 4.1% a year earlier and were the biggest increases among 15 regions tracked.
Local salaries have been boosted by an increase in the minimum wage as well as “hero” pay arrangements for first responders or front-line service workers, like grocery employees. But pay trends have been tricky to track due to the pandemic’s uneven economic wallop.
Lower-paid workers took the brunt of job losses, skewing certain wage indexes too high because there are fewer low salaries to count. This index attempts to dull the impact of a changing mix of jobs.
Here are seven other things to know about the report …
1. Increased pay hikes were a rarity. Nationally, pay in March was rising at a 3% annual rate vs. 3.3% a year earlier. Wages were up in six of the 15 hubs tracked.
2. Local ranking: Of those regions, Southern California pay topped Miami and Washington, D.C. and tied for second at 4%. A year ago, SoCal pay increases ranked No. 4 out of the 15 metros.
3. Smallest hikes this quarter? Houston at 1.1% in the past year, followed by the Bay Area at 2.1%.
4. The biggest wage changes in a year? Miami — up 2 percentage points to 4%. The worst performance was also the Bay Area — off 2.3 points to 2.1%. points.
5. Local outperformance: Since 2016, by this index, Southern California raises averaged 3.6% vs. 2.8% nationally and 3% in Western states.
6. Total compensation: Combining changes in pay and benefit costs, Southern California bosses paid 4.1% more in the year ended in March — No. 4 nationally — vs. 3.5% a year earlier.
7. U.S. total compensation: An annualized increase of 2.8% was the same as a year earlier. Top ranking hubs were Phoenix and the Bay Area at 4.4%.
