Workers’ pay here is among state’s lowest
Staff writer
Although Marion County ranks in the top half of Kansas counties in numbers of employers and jobs, it ranks near the bottom in weekly wages, according to new data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
As of the end of the second quarter of this year, the average gross pay for Marion County workers in jobs covered by unemployment insurance was $704, the equivalent of $36,608 annually.
Only 11 counties in the state had lower weekly wages: Cloud (Concordia), $695; Republic (Belleville), $685; Greenwood (Eureka), $670; Osage (Lyndon) and Washington, $668; Elk (Howard), $665; Comanche (Coldwater), $660; Chautauqua (Sedan), $656; Woodson (Yates Center), $652; Decatur (Oberlin), $645; and Jewell (Mankato), $618.
For the state as a whole, average weekly pay was 47.6% higher ($1,039). For the nation, it was 93.8% higher ($1,294).
All counties surrounding Marion had significantly higher weekly pay, ranging from 3.8% to 42.8% higher: Morris (Council Grove), $731; Dickinson (Abilene), $785; Chase (Cottonwood Falls), $812; Saline (Salina), $859; Harvey (Newton), $868; Butler (El Dorado), $884; and McPherson, $1,003.
Weekly wages in every Kansas county were below the national average.
Johnson County (suburban Kansas City) had the highest at $1,276 or $66,352 annually. The highest-paying counties in the state all were in or around the metropolitan areas of Kansas City, Topeka, and Wichita.
Marion County, the state’s 37th most populous county, ranked 42nd among 105 Kansas counties in terms of number of employers (327) and number of jobs (3,586) but 94th in average weekly pay for those jobs.