Wage surge in county attributed to drilling

BY DAVID FALCHEK
Times-Shamrock Writer

Since before the recession, average weekly wages reported by employers in Susquehanna County surged a whopping 57.8 percent, the most dramatic jump in Northeast Pennsylvania and one largely attributed to natural gas drilling.

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics recently compiled employment and wage data for the first quarter of 2014, showing an average weekly wage in Susquehanna County of $756, up from $478 in 2007, just before the recession.

Those counties experienced a greater increase than the more urban counties in Northeast Pennsylvania, where Lackawanna and Luzerne counties saw average wages increase 18 percent and 14 percent, respectively. If workers feel as though they haven’t received a double-digit wage increase over the last seven years, it may be because most wages barely remained ahead of inflation. From March 2007 to March 2014, the Consumer Price Index for all items in the Northeast United States increased 15.6 percent. Workers whose wage increases were less, lost ground in terms of buying power.

Unlike data produced by the government agencies based on statistical surveys, the census of employment and wages reflect the actual wages paid by businesses in each area as reported to federal agencies.

“This provides a very accurate picture of wages,” said Kara Markley, Bureau of Labor Statistics economist in Philadelphia.

For many, it may feel like they had no increase in income at all.

That’s because the reported gains are averages, said Teri Ooms of the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Development, a local think tank backed by area colleges and universities. As many people may have seen gains less than the average as the people who have seen gains above the average.

She noted that Consumer Price Index doesn’t measure costs like property taxes and certain other costs that have been rising, reducing the feeling that one’s income is rising.