Posted on 01/16/2015 4:51:49 AM PST by thackney
Wages for workers in the U.S. oil and gas industry last year grew at slower rate than the rest of the country for the first time since at least the 2007 recession, according to salary data from PayScale.
The company, which tracks salary, benefits and compensation information, showed that oil and gas salaries in 2014 grew just 0.9 percent over the previous year. That’s compared to a 1.35 percent average growth rate over the same time period for the 16 other industries PayScale analyzed.
The data showed that oil and gas wages have grown at a slower rate every year since 2011, when they grew nearly 2 percent. Last year was the first time wages grew less than 1 percent since PayScale began tracking data in 2007.
The company also found that oil and gas pay grew the second least compared to other sectors, beating only wages for the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, which didn’t grow at all.
PayScale economist Katie Bardaro blamed the slowed wage growth on falling crude prices. Bloomberg said Thursday that West Texas Intermediate crude ended the day trading at $46.25 per barrel, more than 50 percent since June.
“The last quarter of 2014 was a mixed bag in terms of annual wage growth, indicating ongoing volatility in our economy which is expected to continue into early 2015,” Bardaro said in a press release.
According to Fortune magazine, that puts wage growth for oil and gas workers below the inflation rate, meaning the industry’s employees aren’t seeing their salaries grow at all in real terms.
PayScale doesn’t include data from contract workers or employees working less than 30 hours per week. But the company’s analysis is backed up by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which showed that the average 2014 salary for workers in oil and gas extraction, $42,100, was a 3 percent drop from the year prior.
Salaries also fell 3.4 percent in 2013, erasing most of the gains of the last four years.
Meanwhile, BLS showed that salaries for all private sector employees rose slightly in 2014 after stagnating for the last five years.
But pay did grow significantly for some in oil and gas: BLS data showed that most oil field services workers took home salaries that were almost 5 percent bigger than the year before.
I know people who work in oil and gas. Their wages grew 10% every year throughout the Bush/Obama depression not including huge bonuses. We had no raises for a few years then got laid off. I’m not saying the deserve to have their wages shrink, but it was going to come sometime.
Supply and demand, just like the oil/gas itself.
We’ve already closed one office and cut the hours.
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