Average wages in Santa Clara County are 60 percent above the pay levels nationwide, and wages gaps with the United States also exist in the Bay Area s other major urban centers, according to a new report.
Wage gaps also have surfaced in the East Bay and the San Francisco-San Mateo region, the wages report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows. In the East Bay, wages are 28 percent above the U.S. average and in the San Francisco-San Mateo County area, they are 47 percent higher. The report measured wages in 2014.
Job growth in the Bay Area is oriented towards high-wage jobs, and the tech sector in Silicon Valley has to bid up to hire talent, said Stephen Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. That s why there is a gap in the Bay Area.
What s more, the wage gaps are widening in the Bay Area. In 2013, Santa Clara County was 54 percent above the national average and the San Francisco-San Mateo region was 45 percent higher. The gap in the East Bay narrowed slightly from 29 percent in 2013.
We are seeing bidding wars for highly skilled tech people, said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley. The tech economy has created a lot of very highly skilled, high paying positions.
The average hourly wage is $36.43 an hour in Santa Clara County, $33.34 in San Francisco-San Mateo County and $29.03 in the East Bay. The national average wage is $22.71, the BLS survey determined.
For the Bay Area s three major urban centers, the average wage of $32.93 an hour was 45 percent above the average wage in the U.S., this newspaper s analysis of the BLS data shows.
The average annual wage in 2014 was $75,773 in Santa Clara County, $69,347 in San Francisco-San Mateo and $60,682 in the East Bay, compared with $47,236 in the United States.
Employers will tell you that it s tough to find highly skilled talent, Hancock said.
Technology workers are also being paid far more than their counterparts around the country, the BLS survey found.
High tech employees make a yearly average of roughly $124,000 in Santa Clara County, $107,000 in the San Francisco-San Mateo area and $101,000 in the East Bay. Nationwide, the figure for tech workers is about $84,000 a year.
When tech companies do find talent, they find that they have to lock it down right away, so the recruits don t go work somewhere else, Hancock said.
Which tech occupations pay the most? That answer varies by region in the Bay Area.
In Santa Clara County, developers of software apps rule the roost, making just over $142,000 a year. The top tech wages in the San Francisco-San Mateo area are paid to computer network architects, who make just under $130,000. In the East Bay, the top wages in high-tech are paid to developers of software systems, who are paid about $124,000 a year.
This is a very, very hot area to live and work, and the wage growth is pushing up housing prices, Levy said. If you are not paid top wages, you are falling behind in terms of your ability to pay the high housing prices.
Facebook employees are pictured in a photo by BANG staff photographer Karl Mondon
