Highest Pay In CA and NY

It has long been conventional wisdom that in the United States there is a cultural divide between the states on the two coasts versus the middle of the country.  The coasts, both east (especially the north east) and west, have different different politics and different values from the rest of the country, or so the argument goes.  Maybe.  But what does seem clear is that people living on the east and west coasts, at least in large metropolitan areas, tend to make more money than their Middle America counterparts.

In 2010, the San Joses-San Francisco-Oakland, CA metropolitan area had the highest average pay for civilian workers, at 20 percent above the national average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics National Compensation Survey.

Other areas from the survey with higher than average pay were the New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA area, with salaries of 14 percent higher than the national average.  Salinas, CA had salaries 13 percent higher than the national average, and the Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia, WA area came in at 12 percent above the average.

The lowest paid states in the survey came from Lincoln, NE, where people make on average 13 percent less than the national average, and Brownsville-Harlingen, TX, where the average salary is a full 20 percent under the average.

One metropolitan area from a coastal state, Oscala, Florida, came in at the bottom of the survey.  They had an average salary that was also 13 percent below the national average.