State average wage 20% below nation's

$17.95 hourly in ’13 trails U.S.’ $22.33

Arkansas' average hourly wage in 2013 was almost 20 percent below the national average, according to an analysis by the Dallas office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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map showing wages in various areas of Arkansas

The average wage in Arkansas was $17.95 an hour, below the national average of $22.33 as of May 2013, the most recent information available, a spokesman for the bureau said.

The two largest metropolitan areas in the state saw higher hourly wages than the state average, but both fell below the national average.

The almost 335,000 workers in the six-county Little Rock metropolitan area had an average wage of $19.83 an hour, about 11 percent below the national average.

The Northwest Arkansas metropolitan area, which included 208,000 workers, had an average wage of $19.98 an hour, 10.5 percent below the $22.33 national average.

Wages in Arkansas' other metropolitan areas -- including Fort Smith, Pine Bluff, Jonesboro and Hot Springs -- were more than 20 percent below the national average. Rural areas of the state ranged from about 28 percent below the national average to 33 percent below.

It's no surprise that Arkansas' wages are lower than the rest of the nation's, said Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

"Arkansas has been fighting the low-wage battle for a long time," Deck said Friday.

The wage statistics paint the same picture as other income measures, said Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The state's per capita income also is about 80 percent of the national average, Pakko said.

One benefit for Arkansas workers, both Deck and Pakko said, is that the state's cost of living is generally lower than the rest of the nation.

The cost of living in Arkansas was 87.6 percent of the national average in 2012, the most recent information available, according to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis.

"That implies that prices were approximately 12.5 percent lower than the national average in 2012," Pakko said. "That mitigates some of the shortfall [in wages]."

Housing, food and gasoline are typically less expensive in Arkansas, Deck said.

"But keep in mind that money is money," Deck said. "If you go on an expensive vacation, it's not like you're going to get some wage adjustment to take care of that."

High-wage jobs in large cities such as New York or in Southern California's sprawling metropolitan areas may be a sign of prosperity and the desirability of the cities, Deck said.

"But you have to temper that with the fact that costs are also high," Deck said.

Also included in the data were hourly wages for more than 700 occupations broken down by the different regions of the state. For almost every occupation, the average hourly wage in Arkansas is less than it is nationally.

The $13.34 average hourly wage for the farming, fishing and forestry category, which accounts for 7.4 percent of employment in Arkansas, is higher than the national average of $11.70.

"Arkansas is an agricultural state," Deck said. "We have about twice as much of our gross domestic product from farming compared with the rest of the country."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics also released weekly wages for each county in the country Friday.

Again, Arkansas and all 75 counties saw wages below the national average of $1,000 a week.

Arkansas' 1.15 million workers have an average weekly wage of $771 as of December 2013, ranking 47th among the states.

Calhoun County, which had only 2,669 workers but is home to the Highland Industrial Park with several high-paying defense contractors, saw the highest average weekly wage among the state's counties at $916. Benton County was next at $913, followed by Pulaski County at $899, Union County at $876 and Washington County at $857.

The lowest average weekly salary in the state was $472 in Newton County.

A section on 06/28/2014

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