The latest data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) points to an increase in wages across various industries, reflecting the growing demands for skilled professionals even in the face of the threatening reality that the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) as a cheaper replacement for human labor poses.
While several factors determine why individual salaries vary significantly, the upward trend in the average wage continues to be a big win for payroll employees in the United States.
A Social Security Administration (SSA) study found that males with bachelor's degrees earn $900 000 more in a lifetime than men with high school graduates and that males with Ph.D. earn 1.5 million more.
Skilled professionals in tech go home with higher pay than employees in most other fields. For instance, the average annual wage of a software developer in the United States stands at $105,047 annually, almost doubling the national average salary.
Location is another factor influencing salary disparities across the United States. With higher living expenses, metropolitan cities like San Francisco, New York, and Seattle pay workers more.
For instance, healthcare and medical occupations are experiencing unprecedented growth due to industry demands, offering highly competitive salaries than most other industries.
Since the Great Resignation, 47 million Americans voluntarily quit their jobs in 2021, according to the HBR . This is partly due to the pandemic that spiraled the American workforce into an unprecedented labor shortage.