Health Services and Manufacturing Industries Have the Largest Number of High Earners

In a post last week we explored data showing that 19 percent of Oregon private-sector employers had payrolls of $250,000 or more in 2012. But how many individual Oregon workers crossed the $250,000 threshold?

In 2012, less than one percent (0.7%) of Oregon private-sector workers with wages covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) made $250,000 or more. Together these roughly 12,500 individuals received Oregon wages totaling $5.8 billion, or about $463,000 per person. The remaining 1.7 million employees made $53.5 billion dollars in wages in 2012, an average of about $31,400 each.

The largest number of employees earning $250,000 or more worked in the private educational and health services sector. These roughly 3,300 people accounted for 27 percent of high earners in 2012. In second place, employees in the manufacturing sector represented 23 percent of Oregonians earning $250,000 or more. Rounding out the top five were trade, transportation, and utilities (17%), professional and business services (14%), and financial activities (12%).

Although no industry sector had more than 2 percent of its total number of workers in the high-wage category, four sectors had a larger share than the private sector as a whole. These were manufacturing (1.7%), financial activities (1.6%), information (1.2%), and educational and health services (1.2%). Professional and business services and trade, transportation and utilities were on a par with the total private sector, with shares of 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. Construction, natural resources and mining, leisure and hospitality, and other services all had smaller shares of high-wage workers than the private sector as a whole.

If you have questions related to the data above, contact research analyst Phoebe Colman, guest author of today's post.