The U.S. economy has seen significant job growth this year, while workers waited to see growth in their paychecks.
Recent figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that wages are growing by 3.1 percent, the highest in almost a decade. However, when adjusted for inflation, wages are growing by less than 1 percent.
But workers in some cities can anticipate serious gains. For Glassdoor's most recent Local Pay Report, the job site analyzed millions of anonymously submitted individual salary reports to estimate which cities are experiencing the largest pay gains. Glassdoor found that median base pay for full-time workers in the United States increased to $52,943 per year in November, up 2.6 percent from the previous year.
These five cities all beat the national average and had the highest pay gains:
5. Seattle
Year-over-year growth: 2.8 percent
Median base pay: $63,030
4. Boston
Year-over-year growth: 3 percent
Median base pay: $60,783
3. Washington D.C.
Year-over-year growth: 3.2 percent
Median base pay: $61,297
2. New York
Year-over-year growth: 4 percent
Median base pay: $63,288
1. San Francisco
Year-over-year growth: 4.6 percent
Median base pay: $71,420
Glassdoor found that San Francisco was the metro area with the fastest annual pay growth for the fourth month in a row, with median base pay increasing by 4.6 percent since last year. Glassdoor estimates that there were 159,095 job openings in November in the City by the Bay.
The job site also broke down San Francisco jobs by industry and found that even though the city is known for being the home to the tech industry, some of the city's highest paying jobs are in the energy and utilities industry (where workers see median base pay of $76,305) and the biotech and pharmaceuticals industry (which offers median base pay of $74,508.)
The city with the second fastest wage growth was New York, where median base pay increased by 4 percent and workers enjoy salaries around $63,288, on average.
But along with wage growth, the cost of living in cities like San Francisco has also increased over the last year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that between October 2017 and October 2018, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) in San Francisco increased by 4.4 percent, and energy prices jumped 14.2 percent.
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