The highest average pay in the United States can be found in Silicon Valley, not exactly the surprise of the year. Here is something that might be a little bit more brow raising, though; even after factoring in the obscenely high cost of living in the area, the average wages for Silicon Valley workers are still at the top of the list in terms of relative purchasing power, according to pewresearch.org.
The average pay for employees in Silicon Valley is $2,069 a week, after adjusting for cost of living, which is the third highest in the country, that number drops to $1,706 per week. This is still almost $500 above the next closes area of California-Lexington Park, Md., at $1,277.
San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, Calif., Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash., and Midland, Texas round out the top five with average weekly wages of $1,244, $1227, and $1,190 respectively.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Ocean City, N.J. had the lowest weekly wages after adjusting for cost of living at $590. Ocean City already had one of the lowest unadjusted average wages at $640 a week, and a cost of living that’s 8.4 percent above the national average didn’t help matters any. St. George, Utah ($655), Jacksonville, N.C. ($660), Myrtle beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC-NC ($665), and Punta Gorda, Fla. ($690) followed Ocean City and completed the bottom five areas for wages.
For the full list of both the highest and lowest average wages, click the link below.
