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The SF-San Jose metro area is on top, with the average pay among civilian workers running 20 percent above the national average. The NY metro area was 14 percent higher, and the L.A.-Long Beach-Riverside area was at 9 percent. Curiously, Salinas was third-highest of the 77 metro areas, at 14 percent. Pay was lowest in the Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas, metro area. The numbers come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which also slices and dices according to occupation.
Highest metro areas
1 San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA
2 New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA
3 Salinas, CA
4 Boston-Worcester-Manchester, MA-NH
5 Hartford-West Hartford-Willimantic, CT
6 Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia, WA
7 Springfield, MA
8 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA
9 Minneapolis-St Paul-St Cloud, MN-WI
10 Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Truckee, CA-NV
Lowest metro areas
68 Springfield, MO
69 Corpus Christi, TX
70 Great Falls, MT
71 Ocala, FL
72 Knoxville, TN
73 Lincoln, NE
74 Tallahassee, FL
75 Amarillo, TX
76 Johnstown, PA
77 Brownsville-Harlingen, TX
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.