Workers in the Tacoma Metropolitan area had an average hourly wage of $20.83 during May 2008, roughly 3 percent above the nationwide average of $20.32, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Wages in Pierce County were significantly higher than their respective national averages in 12 of the 22 major occupational groups and five groups had significantly lower wages.

Those Tacoma occupations exceeding the national average are: health care practitioner and technical; farming, fishing, and forestry; and protective service.

Local occupations where the average wage is lower than the U.S. average are: legal; arts, design, entertainment, sports, media, and computer and mathematical science.

One occupational group -- construction and extraction -- illustrates the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Metro-Tacoma had 19,670 jobs in building occupations, accounting for 7.1 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the occupational group's 4.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this group locally was $24.34, compared to the national wage of $20.36.

To this snapshot of local wages as of May 2008, click this link.