The PayScale Index (US): Trends in Compensation

2012: San Diego wages continued their gentle upward trend in Q1 2012, painting a cautiously optimistic picture for earnings in this Pacific paradise. San Diego residents’ wages set pace with national wage trends in Q1 2012, gaining about 0.5 percent over the previous quarter.

2007-2011: Over the last few years, San Diego private sector wages have felt the downward pressure seen in the rest of the country. Before the recession, growth trends in the market prices for San Diego workers outperformed the national trends by 0.5 to 1.5 percent.

Through 2009 and early 2010, wages in San Diego dropped and were down about 2.5 percent from their peak. The rest of 2010 saw wages basically flat. Growth in late 2011 pushed wages up 1 percent year-over-year, though they still lagged behind their 2008 peak.

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The San Diego Metro Area includes people in San Diego, Calif.; Carlsbad, Calif.; San Marcos, 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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