Do us a favor and reach into your pockets for a second. Feel a little extra jingle in there? It’s not just Christmas bells a-ringing—it might be the extra coins you pulled in this year. Citywide, wages for L.A. workers are up compared to last year, according to new research.
The study by Glassdoor Economic Research found that, since 2015, Angelenos working full-time have seen a 4.3 percent increase in their incomes. That brings the city’s median income up to $58,973. It also means that wage increases in L.A. saw the largest growth of any city in the study and outpaced the national average by more than a whole percentage point.
If you don’t actually feel 4.3 percent richer right now, it might be because those stats only capture full-time salaried workers. If you’re a part-timer, contractor or self-employed, you might not be represented in that overall number.
Even if you’re one of the workers who benefits from the wage increases, you might still feel pinched since housing costs have continued to rise even faster than incomes. And don’t even get us started on the volatility in the avocado markets.
If you’re trying to snag one of the city’s best-paying jobs, Glassdoor found that the highest base salaries were being pulled in by attorneys, data scientists and university professors. If you had it all to do over again and money was the goal, we would suggest taking an engineering degree and going straight into the energy and utilities industry, the sector with the highest across-the-board incomes.
Image: Courtesy Glassdoor Economic Research
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