The PayScale Index (US): Trends in Compensation

2012: Houston continued to see skyrocketing wage growth in Q1 2012. The city’s quarterly growth was about 1.5 percent and its annual growth was almost 3 percent, making its previous, pre-recession earnings peak in Q4 2008 seem like a distant memory.

2007-2011: The largest city in Texas hosts a variety of strong industries, including aeronautics and healthcare, but the boom in the oil and gas industry has had the biggest positive impact on wages in Houston. Houston wage gains from 2007 through 2008 far outpaced national averages. After a significant drop of more than 2 percent in early 2009, wages ended 2010 basically where they were in mid-2009. Growth sped up in 2011 as earnings in Houston finished the year up about 1.5 percent year-over-year, outpacing national averages.

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The Houston Metro Area includes people in Houston, Texas; Sugar Land, Texas; Baytown, Texas; and the surrounding areas.

The PayScale Index tracks quarterly changes in total cash compensation for full-time, private industry employees in the United States. In addition to a national index, it includes separate indices for specific industries, metropolitan areas, job categories, and company sizes. The PayScale Index uses 2006 average total cash compensation as a baseline.

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