For Texas workers who stayed put in the same job for the last 12 months, their take-home pay grew by nearly 6% year-over-year, according to a new report by payroll processing firm ADP.
The state’s 5.8% wage growth percentage lands in the middle of the pack among states and is on par with national figures at 5.7%. The growth is a decline from pandemic highs, marking the slowest rates since October 2021.
The wage growth comes as inflation eases after peaking in the summer of 2022. The overall consumer price index slowed 3.2 percent last month on a year-over-year basis.
In June 2022, workers across the country who switched jobs saw a 16.4% change in pay, while those who stayed in their roles saw a 7.7% change, according to ADP reports.
The bump workers saw after the pandemic in both Texas and across the U.S. was extraordinary, said Liv Wang, lead data scientist at ADP Research Institute. The historically high pay change increase was a result of labor uncertainties, as workers switched jobs or left the labor force, Wang said.
The pandemic brought up many moving parts, like droves of workers switching jobs or dropping out of the labor force. It then pushed the pay change to a historically high level, Wang said. In the last year, there’s been a move down from that peak, Wang said.
The median annual pay in October was $55,1000 for Texas workers who held onto the same job throughout the last year. Nationally, $57,800 was the average pay for job stayers.
The Bank of America Institute suggests that not only changing jobs can bring in more cash, but also moving cities. Workers who relocate seem to get bigger pay increases than those who stay in the same metropolitan areas, data found.
People who moved to Dallas-Fort Worth saw a roughly 7% year-over-year change increase in a typical paycheck, according to Bank of America. Whereas those who stayed in Dallas-Fort Worth saw less than a 2% bump.
The change in pay for people who moved to the area is likely attributed to the larger salaries and cost of living offered in metro areas like Dallas-Fort Worth, the report authors state.