Provided by Business Insider
The number of jobs in America is growing, and with that, full-time wages are also shooting up in parts of the country.
The PayScale Index tracks how many times private-sector wages have changed since 2006, and found that between Q4 of 2010 and Q4 of 2011, 18 metro areas saw at least some wage growth.
While energy and tech jobs continue to see the most wage growth, construction and manufacturing jobs are finally starting to move in that direction.
PayScale Analytics Manager Katie Bardaro told us that the index doesn't account for differences in compensation based on experience or other outlying factors. It just looks at how pay has changed for the job itself.
We've highlighted the 10 cities with the biggest wage increases in the past year. Among the winners are Houston, Texas; St. Louis, Mo.; and San Francisco, Calif.
Here are the cities with the biggest wage increases:
#10 San Diego, Calif.
12-month change: 1.2% increase
2011 Q4 PayScale Index: 104.9
2010 Q4 PayScale Index: 103.7
#9 Atlanta, Ga.
12-month change: 1.3% increase
2011 Q4 PayScale Index: 103.5
2010 Q4 PayScale Index: 102.1
#8 Philadelphia, Pa.
12-month change: 1.3% increase
2011 Q4 PayScale Index: 106.2
2010 Q4 PayScale Index: 104.8
#7 St. Louis, Mo.
12-month change: 1.4% increase
2011 Q4 PayScale Index: 105.8
2010 Q4 PayScale Index: 104.3
#6 San Francisco, Calif.
12-month change: 1.4% increase
2011 Q4 PayScale Index: 104.5
2010 Q4 PayScale Index: 103.1
#5 Seattle, Wash.
12-month change: 1.6% increase
2011 Q4 PayScale Index: 107.5
2010 Q4 PayScale Index: 105.9
#4 Washington, D.C.
12-month change: 1.7% increase
2011 Q4 PayScale Index: 106.8
2010 Q4 PayScale Index: 105.0
#3 Chicago, Ill.
12-month change: 1.7% increase
2011 Q4 PayScale Index: 104.2
2010 Q4 PayScale Index: 102.5
#2 Miami, Fla.
12-month change: 1.8% increase
2011 Q4 PayScale Index: 104.4
2010 Q4 PayScale Index: 102.5
#1 Houston, Texas
12-month change: 2.2% increase
2011 Q4 PayScale Index: 108.3
2010 Q4 PayScale Index: 106.0
Source: PayScale tracks the level of wage changes jobs have experienced since 2006. The index is a percent that has been multiplied by 100, which is the baseline figure used for 2006.
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