While you may or may not see the evidence in your paycheck, average pay in Colorado is on the rise, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The state’s workers received an average 5.9 percent bump in their weekly pay in the fourth quarter of 2004 compared with the same period in 2003.
That’s significantly better than the fourth-quarter gains of 0.1 percent in 2002 and 2.5 percent in 2003. It’s also better than the 5.7 percent pay increase seen nationally last year.
“Colorado is in a recovery period,” said Joseph Winter, a senior economist with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. “Wage and salary are moving in line with our job growth.”
The state gained 27,900 nonfarm jobs last year after losing 31,500 in 2003, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
Some of the strongest wage gains by industry during the fourth quarter came in natural resources and mining, up 16.6 percent; professional and business services, up 9.9 percent; and manufacturing, up 8.3 percent.
Yet fatter paychecks may be hard to come by.
“Law firms are still laying off,” said Antoinette Taylor, a paralegal in Denver for 27 years.
Taylor said getting on with a law firm used to be a ticket to security – but she took a $5,000 pay cut to land her current job.
Fourth-quarter pay often gets pushed up by year-end bonuses and commissions. Colorado employers appear to have been more generous with those than in the previous two years, one reason for the wage gains.
According to the Labor Department, pay increases and job growth have been unevenly distributed in Colorado:
Average weekly wages in Denver County rose 5.9 percent to $990 during the fourth quarter. The county ranked 123rd for weekly wage gains among the nation’s 317 largest counties, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Workers in Arapahoe and Adams counties made out even better, with wage increases above 7 percent.
Larimer and Boulder counties lagged with fourth-quarter wage gains of 3.2 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively.
Boulder’s leaner pay raise was especially surprising given that the county ranked 53rd for job growth among the nation’s largest.
After lengthy wage freezes, employers are realizing they need to pay more or risk losing workers, said Ilene Siscovick, who measures compensation trends at Mercer Human Resources Consulting in Los Angeles.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-820-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
