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109 Monthly Lab. Rev. 26 (1986)
BLS White-Collar Pay survey Now Covers Small Firms

handle is hein.journals/month109 and id is 952 raw text is: Research. Summaries / a ! BLS white-collar pay survey now covers small firms JOHN D. MORTON Clerical workers and recent hires in professional and admin- istrative positions typically are paid 10 to 20 percent more in large firms employing 2,500 workers or more than in small firms employing 50 to 999 workers. In contrast, the pay advantage for fully experienced professionals in these large firms is usually under 5 percent. (See table 1.) The national survey of professional administrative, tech- nical, and clerical pay (PATC survey) in 1986 increased its coverage of firms with as few as 50 workers. As a result of the expansion, 156,000 establishments employing 33.5 mil- lion workers were covered in 1986 (previously, the survey covered 47,000 establishments employing 23.3 million workers). Establishments in Alaska and Hawaii are ex- cluded. The survey is conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but survey occupations and coverage, such as establishment size and the private industries to be included, are determined by the President's Pay Agent (the Secretary of Labor and the Directors of the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management).' In addition to the size of a firm's work force, skill and experience also influence white-collar pay, as can be readily seen from the survey results. (See table 2.) Engineers, the survey's most numerous occupational group, illustrate the effect of rising skill levels on pay: recent engineering grad- uates (level I) averaged $27,866 annually in March 1986, while engineers responsible for highly complex engineering programs (level VIII) averaged $79,021.2 In contrast, skill levels can act as a source of pay uniform- ity for the same level of work among different occupations. The following tabulation shows a relatively narrow (9 per- cent) spread separated the highest paid and lowest paid of six equivalent work levels in the survey: Work levels Attorney IV ............... Director of personnel III ..... Chief accountant II ......... Accountant VI ............. Chemist VI ................ Engineer VI ............... Annual salary level $63,933 63,855 62,880 61,546 60,796 58,883 Table 1. Relative pay levels by size of establishment, selected white-collar occupations In the national survey of professionai, administrative, technical, and clerical pay, Mrh1986 Mlean salules for estabsment sze groups as a Job cleflcalon _of _ aeages All 50 to 999 1,000 to 2,00 estlWshm t wwker 2,499 waier warkers or more Accountants: ................ 100 96 104 107 Aceountants III ............... 100 98 101 107 Acountants IV ............... 100 99 101 102 Engineers I ................. 100 93 102 104 Engineers III ................ 100 97 104 101 Engineers IV ................ 100 98 103 100 Computer progranmers I ....... 100 94 102 110 Computer programmers III ...... 100 97 98 104 Computer pogrammers IV ...... 100 98 98 102 NoTE: Level I staff are trainees: level III are experienced nonsupervisory staff wortdng on conventional assignments; and level IV are experienced staff wordng on more complex assignments n a supeAsory or nonsupervisory capacrty. Unequal market demands, however, can nullify this cluster effect. For example, average pay for beginning engineers in the survey was well above that of their accountant and chemist counterparts. Although the PATC survey focuses on salary levels at a given time, its history permits a look at salary trends. White- collar salaries increased moderately between March 1985 and March 1986 in medium and large firms. Average salaries for most occupations surveyed rose between 3.0 and 5.5 percent-in line with gains reported a year earlier. In contrast, occupational salary increases averaged about 7 percent a year during the 1970's and more than 9 percent in 1981 and 1982. However, the rate of increase has been declining since 1982.3 A detailed analysis of white-collar salaries and complete results of this year's survey are included in the National Survey of Professional, Administrative, Technical, and Clerical Pay, March 1986, Bulletin 2271 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1986). The bulletin contains, for example, sepa- rate salary data by size of community and size of establish- ment. -FOOTNOTES- The Pay Agent has designated the industrial coverage as follows: min- ing; construction; manufacturing; transportation, communications, and public utilities; wholesale and retail trade; finance, insurance, and real estate; and selected services. The pay-setting role of the PATc survey is described in George L. Stelluto's Federal pay comparability: facts to temper the debate, Monthly Labor Review, June 1979, pp. 18-28. John D. Morton is an economist in the Division of Occupational Pay and Employee Benefit Levels, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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