Houston pay tops nation on oil, gas strength

Fuel Fix ^ | July 10, 2014 | Collin Eaton

[thackney]

Houston outpaced every city in the nation in annual wage growth during the second quarter, thanks largely to a bump in oil and gas-industry pay, according to PayScale.

The Seattle-based pay tracker said the city’s 3 percent rise in annual wages beat the national average of 1.8 percent from April to June.

That’s the second consecutive quarter that Houston wage-earners beat the national average, after a sluggish 2013 that saw pay in the energy capital flatten. (Average wage earners weren’t the only ones who had flat paydays last year: Some compensation packages for the chief executives of oil and gas companies wilted under shareholder pressure.)

Pay in Houston’s biggest industry, oil and gas, has climbed 20.5 percent since 2006, the highest total wage growth of any industry in the last eight years, PayScale noted in its latest quarterly index this week.

“Whatever the dominant industry in the metro area is, that’s what’s going to drive wages in the city,” said Katie Bardaro, lead economist and analytics manager for Payscale, in an interview with Fuelfix on Thursday. “But even for people not in that industry, you’ll still see wage growth, because money is still cycling throughout the local economy.”

Last year’s slump for Houston wage growth could also be attributed to a decline in the oil and gas sector, she said.

If a city’s dominant industry slides, the metro will generally see a decline because all of the city’s other industries aren’t benefiting from a trickle-down effect, “compounding that factor,” she said.

Still, Houston’s recent wage growth hasn’t reached the heights it did before the economy slumped starting in 2008.

In the April-June period of 2007, Houston’s annual wages shot up nearly 6 percent, towering over the national average’s 2 percent growth, and higher than Houston’s 5 percent growth in the final quarter of 2012.

Before the recession, one of the biggest drivers of wage growth was inflation, Bardaro said.

“We had higher inflation in the per-recession times, but we have seen some inflation in the last few quarters,” she said. “I would expect Houston wage growth to keep rising.”

PayScale data also shows a connection between Houston’s growth and the U.S. oil and gas sector, which is classified as part of the mining industry.

The Mining, Oil and Gas Industry saw wages rise 2.6 percent in the second quarter, a lot higher than the first quarter, in which pay growth was almost nil.

[thackney]

Combine high wages with (relatively) low cost of living:

COST OF LIVING COMPARISONS

[isthisnickcool]

Houston has many reasons for being successful. The oil and gas industry, the Port of Houston, the medical center etc. but the reason it is most successful is property freedom! There is no zoning so people can decide what to do with their own property.

In recent years Houston has had a slew of idiot DEMOCRAT mayors, the most recent being an especially stupid and vapid licket-D-spliter lesbian bull dyke named Annise Parker who is a leftist puke. But, just like with all the previous DEMOCRAT mayors the city just flows right around them and continues to grow and prosper like crazy as do all the surrounding cities.

Texas rocks!

[1010RD]

I know of two structural engineers, one living in NYC and the other in Houston. The Houston engineer makes 30% more than the NYC engineer. Low prices and high wages? That’s a proven winner.

We need a Gov/Gov ticket and so far I like Perry and Walker (WI). I’d take either one on the top of the ticket.

[1010RD]

Houston now has zoning.

[cookcounty]

"the national average of 1.8 percent from April to June."

And in the nation as a whole, that's only because bureaucrats' pay went up