Kentucky ranks among top 10 states for year-over-year pay growth
Louisville Business First
The Louisville region's source for local business news & events. Part of the American City Business Journals network.
Kentucky’s median salary for workers who remained in their jobs over the past year increased 5.1 percent.
That puts it among the top 10 states for year-over-year pay growth, according to new data released this week in?ADP National Employment Report’s Pay Insights?for October 2024. The commonwealth is tied for No. 9 on the list, with a median annual salary of $54,400 for workers who've stayed in their role for the past 12 months.
Nationally, the year-over-year median change in annual pay was 4.6% and the median annual pay was $56,000 for job stayers, the report found. That’s a decline from last September, when the change in annual pay was 5.9% and the median annual pay was $57,700.
Nationwide, wage growth for job-changers fell to 6.2% as the wage premium between job-stayers and job-changers continues to shrink, according to ADP.
ADP Pay Insights uses payroll transactions data to provide a view on the wages and salaries of a cohort of almost 10 million employees over a 12-month period.
How affordable is Louisville?
Louisville also landed at No. 20 among the most affordable metro areas?in the country. The Business Journals analyzed data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ Regional Price Parity index, which is a measure of the different prices of goods, housing and other services across the country compared to the national average.
The data also includes specific index scores for the cost of housing, utilities, goods and other services in each metro. Utilities here are much cheaper than average, with the Louisville metro ranking 10th in that category, according to the analysis. The local metro ranks 23rd for housing affordability, 25th for goods affordability and 27th for affordability of other services.
Louisville is the most affordable major city in the region, with Cincinnati ranking 29th and Indianapolis coming in at 32nd. Nashville ranked 51st.