BLS area wage surveys will cover more areas - Bureau of Labor Statistics earnings data-gathering

Monthly Labor Review, June, 1986 by Laura Scofea

BLS area wage surveys will cover more areas

The Bureau of Labor Statistics will restructure the probability sample of labor markets for its area wage survey program to reflect changes in the number and geographic boundaries of the Nation's metropolitan statistical areas. The new area sample will be phased in over a 4-year period beginning in January 1987, and will contain 90 areas when fully implemented. The 32 largest areas in terms of nonfarm employment will be surveyed annually, and two groups of 29 areas will be surveyed in alternate years.

Currently, 70 areas are surveyed annually. Of these areas, 56 will remain in the program; geographic boundaries, however, will change for 34 of them.

This article gives a brief description of the Bureau's area wage survey program and the changes to be made in the probability sample of areas surveyed. The article covers area wage survey program objectives and program evolution from initial 1947-48 studies of pay for office clerical occupations in 11 large cities. It also describes the metropolitan area concept used in the program, reasons for changes in the area sample, the method for selecting the new sample, and the differences between the old and new area samples.

Program background

The Bureau's area wage survey program is designed to shed light on the level and structure of occupational pay rates within a local labor market by studying occupations common to many industries.1 The areas surveyed are a representative cross-section of the wide variety of local labor markets found throughout the United States. The surveys, relating to specific payroll periods, focus on pay relationships among occupations, industries, and areas of the country. Successive survey findings are also useful in reviewing pay changes over time.

Using a standard set of job descriptions, the Bureau designs surveys which cover narrowly defined occupations selected from four categories--office clerical (such as secretaries, typists, and accounting clerks); professional and technical (for example, computer programmers and electronics technicians); maintenance, toolroom, and powerplant (maintenance electricians and stationary engineers); and material movement and custodial (order fillers and guards). Estimates of average straight-time hourly or weekly earnings and distributions of workers by their earnings are developed for each of approximately 50 occupations studied. (Fifteen of the occupations--for example, word processors, computer systems analysts, and guards-- are divided into two work levels or more.)

In addition, every third year the surveys yield information on the prevalence of provisions for cost-of-living adjustments in pay rates; minimum entrance salaries for inexperienced typists and other inexperienced clerical workers; pay differentials for work on late shifts; work schedules; extent of collective bargaining agreement coverage; holiday, vacation, and other paid leave provisions; and the incidence of health, insurance, retirement, severance pay, and supplemental unemployment benefits. Data typically are developed separately for production and office workers; information on shift pay differentials, however, is restricted to production workers in manufacturing.

Findings for each area wage survey are published in a separate BLS bulletin.2 To aid in interarea pay comparisons, average area pay levels in four employment groups--office clerical, electronic data processing, skilled maintenance, and unskilled plant jobs--are related to pay levels for all metropolitan areas combined, in index form, that is, all metropolitan area pay levels = 100. Results are published in an annual summary release.3 Results of the individual surveys, after appropriate weighting to account for areas not surveyed, are also combined to develop pay levels for the narrowly defined occupations in all metropolitan areas combined; separate data are presented for major industry divisions and for four broad geographic regions.4 Also, special articles appear in the Monthly Labor Review, with in-depth analyses of specific survey findings.5

The area wage survey program has grown considerably since it started in fiscal year 1948 as part of a restructuring of the Bureau's occupational wage survey activities. That year's surveys provided information on salaries in office clerical occupations in 11 large cities. In 1950, the geographic scope of the surveys expanded from cities to the larger metropolitan areas as defined by the U.S. Bureau of the Budget (now the Office of Management and Budget). A year later, professional and technical, maintenance, and custodial and material movement occupations were added.6

These developments roughly coincided with the outbreak of the Korean conflict. Resources for area wage surveys were expanded as a result of this emergency in order to provide data for administering wage stabilization policies. During the 1950's, between 11 and 40 areas of various sizes were studied in a given year, with the number depending on resources available for the program.