The PayScale Index (US): Trends in Compensation

2012: It looks like shopper turnout and spending remained high after the 2011 holiday season, as Q1 2012 was another quarter of wage growth for the retail industry. Quarter-over-quarter growth in Q1 2012 was 0.4 percent, while year-over-year growth was a respectable 1.5 percent.

2007-2011: Many types of jobs make up the retail industry, including car dealers and vending machine operators. Pay for these workers grew through late 2008, tracking just behind national trends, then tumbled in 2009. Wages recovered somewhat in 2010. Then, record shopper turnout and spending in the 2011 holiday season helped retail workers’ wages leap nearly a whole percent in Q4, ending the year with almost 1 percent year-over-year growth.

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The retail industry (44-45), as defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), includes the following: car dealers, furniture stores, computer and software stores, hardware stores, grocery stores, pharmacies, clothing stores, vending machine operators. View the full definition on Census.gov.

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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