The PayScale Index (US): Trends in Compensation

2012: The sunny optimism brought on by small, but steady, wage growth in Los Angeles in late 2011 was clouded over a bit in early 2012. Wages fell in Q1 2012, but just barely, starting off the year 0.2 percent down from the previous quarter.

2007-2011: Earnings in Los Angeles rose through 2007, outpacing national compensation trends; then, in 2008, the market price of workers in the Los Angeles metro area stagnated.

L.A. wages went into a freefall during the first half of 2009, dropping below national growth levels for the first time since 2006. For the rest of 2009 and most of 2010, salaries in L.A. moved sideways, generally no better off than the nation as a whole in wage increase trends since 2006.

Earnings in L.A. mostly languished in 2011, with some small growth towards the end of the year.

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The Los Angeles Metro Area includes people in Los Angeles, Calif.; Long Beach, Calif.; Santa Ana, Calif; Irvine, Calif.; Glendale, Calif.; Anaheim, Calif.; 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.

See full methodology for compensation trend reports.

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