Wages stay flat

COEUR d'ALENE - Unemployed workers in Idaho have affected the pay wages for those who still have jobs, the Idaho Department of Labor said this week.

The relationship is supply and demand. The more workers looking for work, the less incentive bosses have to offer incentives for the staff they have.

That might be part of the reason Idaho's median wage for all occupations rose less than eight-tenths of a percent between spring 2008 to spring 2009, according to Idaho's 2010 Occupational Employment and Wage Survey.

"When there are 60,000 or 70,000 unemployed people, there's not going to be a pressure on wages," said Bob Fick, IDL spokesman. "That's going to keep them flat."

Idaho's 11-cent increase - the fourth smallest in the nation - brought the state's median wage to $14.43 in 2009. Its statewide unemployment rate remained at 8.9 percent in August.

Nationally, the median wage increased by 38 cents to $15.95 an hour.

The median wage is the point where half the workers make more and half make less. It's only one factor for tracking an economy's health, but the year-by-year comparisons can be a indicator of its direction.

"On the total scale it's probably a fairly fair comparison from one year to the next that reflects the stagnant economy," Fick said. "I don't think there's any question the recession is the reason for the wages being flat."

Flat is better than a decline.

"It's good news that it isn't going down," said Todd Jenicek, owner of Calypsos Coffee in downtown Coeur d'Alene, who has kept his 10 employees pay rates steady at $7.25 an hour, plus tips. "If we can just hold on during this slow time until things pick back up" it will improve.

Jenicek said the unemployment pool is affecting wages because those unemployed aren't spending as much money in businesses around town, thereby affecting owners' bottom line. It's not that owners could replace workers should they become unsatisfied with their stagnant wages.

"I don't think it's a supply and demand issue," he said. "If you have good workers, you pay them."

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, based in Cambridge, Mass., the recession lasted 18 months, and officially ended in June 2009.

Before it took hold, from mid-2007 to mid-2008, Idaho's median wage rose 53 cents an hour, or 3.8 percent, to $14.32.

Other yardsticks economists use to measure the economy include unemployment and job numbers and Social Security payments.

"It's what we've seen all along, there's no significant movement," Fick said of the median wage. "It's good news in the fact that it didn't go down."

Survey results are based on responses from 5,000 employers throughout Idaho and reflect wages for more than 600 specific occupations in 22 categories.

The District of Columbia and Wyoming posted the biggest increases at 4.4 percent. D.C. rose $1.17 to $27.79, and Wyoming jumped 68 cents to $16.20.

Michigan flat-lined, showing zero difference in median wages between 2008 and 2009.

Meanwhile, Idaho's average wage in 2009 was $18.22 an hour, up 1.6 percent. Only four other states posted smaller increases. Nationally, the average wage rose 58 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $20.90.

Eleven Idaho counties posted double-digit unemployment rates for August, with four recording 14 percent or higher. Boundary had the highest at 14.6 percent.

"Things weren't good between 2008 and 2009," Fick said. "And this reflects that."