Nation's Capital Boasts the Biggest Salaries

Washington Paychecks are Biggest in the East

Considering the fact that government is the largest employer in the DC metro area, it is no wonder that the nation's capital boasts the biggest salaries. Yet, the typical worker in DC making $60,900 per year is still below the national average salary for federal workers ($79,197) and the area average for public school teachers ($67,150). The national average for private sector employees is $49,935.

In 2010 a USA Today analysis reported that federal civil servants earned in 2009, on average, twice as much in pay and benefits ($123,049), including unrealized pension benefits, as the average private worker ($61,051). Average benefits were worth $41,791, most of it due to pensions. The average federal salary grew 33% faster than inflation from 2000 to 2009. Average compensation grew 36.9% since 2000, after adjusting for inflation, compared with 8.8% for private workers. The federal compensation advantage had grown from $30,415 in 2000 to $62,000 in 2009. [From Wikipedia]

May 11, 2011

Yahoo! News - D.C. workers make more money than their counterparts in other eastern U.S. cities, according to an analysis by the Business Journals.

Using Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the group's On Numbers column found that "the typical worker in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metropolitan division earned $60,090 in 2009 ... $1,760 above the runner-up, Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass."

Based on the Journals' interactive chart of 673 Washington professions, ushers make $18,360; watch repairers earn $37,800; transportation inspectors average $89,950, and orthodontists pull down $221,020.

Maryland's Bethesda-Frederick-Gaithersburg area was No. 5 on the list, with an average pay of $56,900.

See a list of the Top 10 Eastern metro areas by pay.

The Washington Business Journal also reports that D.C. home values are outperforming most other places in the United States and that area job growth, although expected to slow, "will remain well above the average area annual job growth rate."