Vic Kolenc|El Paso Times
El Paso's wages continue to lag well behind national and state levels, and even behind neighboring Las Cruces, according to a new federal report.
It's not a new phenomenon: El Paso's wages have been well below national and state averages for years.
El Paso's average wage for all occupations was $17.78 per hour last year, or $36,980 per year, according to a report by the Dallas office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That's23.5 percent below the national average wage of $23.23 per hour, or $48,320 per year; 20.5 percent below the Texas average of $22.38; 14.4 percent below the New Mexico average of $20.76; and 10 percent below the Las Cruces average of $19.79.
That data comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' May 2015 wagedata, which was released in March for theUnited States as a whole and for almost 600 metro areas.
"El Paso, not unlike a lot of areas in Texas, have lagged national (wage) averages for many, many years," saidCheryl Abbot, regional economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics' regional office in Dallas. "Take out the (four) largest metro areas in Texas, and almost all others have substantial wage gaps with the national average.
"A lot has to do with where wages have been historically. To move the average wage level takes so much change in an economy; it can seem to take foreverfor theaverage wage level to change," she said.
El Paso's average wage was 23 percent below the national average 10 years ago, Abbot noted.
"That's not all bad news," she said. "It means El Paso is keeping up with the national economy." However, it's not gaining on the national economy, she said.
Rolando Pablos, chief executive officer of the Borderplex Alliance, a regional economic development organization based in Downtown El Paso, said the report isanother reminder "that we have to continue to work very aggressively in developing our talent pipeline and helping improve the skills of our existing workforce" to increase wages in this area.
"The hard fact is education is key," Pablos said, repeating something El Paso leaders have said for years. "No one can deny that wage levels and educational attainment are directly proportional."
Abbot said increasing an area's education levels will help individuals find higher-paying jobs. But those jobs also have to be available in an area, or graduates will have to go elsewhere to get the higher-paying jobs, she said.
El Paso's educational levels have increased in recent years through efforts by several El Paso organizations, butEl Paso continues to struggle with graduates from the University of Texas at El Paso and other area universities leaving this area for higher-paying jobs elsewhere.
Distribution of workers in occupations is key to moving the wage needle, Abbot said.
If an area has largeshares of workers in high-paying occupational groups, such asComputer and Mathematical, or Business and Financial Operations, or Management,then thearea's average wage will be higher, she said.
El Paso employment ishighly concentrated in three occupational groups that tend to have lower wages:Office and Administrative Support; Sales and Related; and Food Preparation and Serving Related,the Bureau of Labor statistics show.
Since El Paso has a larger percentage than the national average in thoseoccupational groups, its wage average is draggeddown, Abbot said.
The largestEl Paso occupational group is Office and Administrative Support, which employed almost 19 percent of El Paso's workforce last year, compared to almost 16 percent nationally. Wages in that sector averaged $14.10 per hour in El Paso last year -- 19 percent below the national average of $17.47 per hour.
The sector includes El Paso's large call-center industry, which includes several back-office support operations. Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Dish Network, and others operate large call centers here. ADP, Prudential Financial and othersoperate large centers to provideback-office servicesfor employers.
El Paso's average wage was below the national average in 21 of 22 major occupational groups.
El Paso'sProtective Servicesector was the only El Paso occupational group with a higher than national wage average -but only 1 percent above the national average. That El Paso sector, which includes U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, and other law enforcement jobs, had an average wage of $21.73 per hour last year, or $45,190 per year.
Las Cruces' average wage is higher than El Paso, in part, because it has a larger share of its employment in some high-paying occupations, Abbot said.
The percentage of Las Cruces workers was above the national average in theEducation, Training, and Library sector, which includes school teachers and college professors, and in the Architecture and Engineering sector in 2014, the latest Las Cruces report available, Abbot said. It's likely that workers' composition remained about the same in 2015, she said.
Las Cruces' largest share of workers was in Office and Administrative Support, just as in El Paso. But Las Cruces'share of workers in that sector was just below the national average in 2014.
Pablos at the Borderplex Alliance saidthe wage report can be used solely topoint to negative wage trends for El Paso, but, he said, a more in-depth look at the data would likely also show significant wage improvements in some occupations.
Low wages "represent the most significant impediment for achieving economic prosperity" for individuals and the region as a whole, Pablos said.
"The good new is that our community has finally accepted this reality and has been doing the right things needed to help reverse this trend," Pablos said.
More information:bls.gov/regions/southwest/news-release/occupationalemploymentandwages_elpaso.htm
Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; 546-6421; @vickolenc on Twitter.
Regional wages
Mobile users view regional wages here.
Average hourly wages for all occupations in selected metro areas in May 2015, and percentage difference from national average:
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, May 2015.
El Paso wages:
Average hourly wages, and average annual salariesin May 2015 for selected major occupational groups in El Paso, compared to national averages:
Mobile users click here for average hourly, annual salaries.
Source: :U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,Occupational Employment and Wages,May 2015.
