[The National Employment Law Project has] calculated the percentage change in real median hourly wages from 2009 to 2013 for 785 occupations, which were grouped into quintiles, each representing approximately one-fifth of total employment in 2013. The labels in Figure 1 show the 2013 median hourly wage for the lowest- and highest-paid occupations within each quintile.
The updated findings indicate that wage declines continued for each quintile between 2012 and 2013:
- Averaged across all occupations, real median hourly wages declined by 3.4 percent from 2009 to 2013.
- Lower- and mid-wage occupations experienced greater declines in their real wages than did higher-wage occupations (see Figure 1).
- Median wages in the two highest quintiles declined by an average of 2.1 and 2.5 percent, respectively. By contrast, occupations in the bottom three-fifths saw median wage declines of between 3.6 to 4.6 percent.
Table 1 breaks out the average percentage decline in real median hourly wages for the 10 largest occupations in the bottom quintile. Wage declines were especially pronounced, ranging from 5.8 percent to 8.3 percent, for maids and housekeeping cleaners, home health aides, personal care aides, food preparation workers, and restaurant cooks.
Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at An Unbalanced Recovery: Real Wage and Job Growth Trends (August 2014)
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