According to job site Glassdoor, the annual median base pay in the United States grew 2.7 percent year over year in April 2017 to $51,350. The Glassdoor Local Pay Reports show pay growth decelerated slightly from the 2.8 percent revised pay growth recorded last month, marking a three-month long downward trend: U.S. pay growth peaked in December at 3.1 percent. Retail jobs showed above-average wage growth across the U.S. as a whole and in each metro covered by the reports. The Glassdoor Local Pay Reports provide a unique view into the country's wage picture with salary estimates for 60 job titles across multiple industries and year-over-year pay growth trends in the United States. The reports now include details on 10 major metros: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.¹

"While we have experienced a slight decline in wage growth during the first few months of this year, April's growth is strong and is well above 2016's average of 2.3 percent and 2015's 1.9 percent growth. The job market continues to be fast-growing and we are seeing big gains in salaries for jobs that are typically low-wage, like restaurant cook and customer service manager," said Dr. Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist of Glassdoor.

Five New Markets Added to Local Pay Reports; Houston, Philadelphia Lag Behind National Average Growth

Glassdoor is now tracking an additional five markets for its Local Pay Reports: Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington, D.C., bringing the report to 10 metro areas and the U.S. total.

While the U.S. continues to see steady growth in salaries, Houston and Philadelphia wages lagged far behind. Houston continues to fall below the national average with the median base pay rising only 1.0 percent YOY to $54,410 – nearly 2 percentage points less than the national average. Houston has had below average wage growth for 16 of the past 17 consecutive months, primarily due to continued softening in the energy sector. Philadelphia also showed slow wage growth of 1.6 percent YOY with a median base pay of $54,408 in April, compared to 2.0 percent in the previous month.

Fastest growing among the markets we track was Los Angeles, with pay growth in April at 3.8 percent YOY, bringing the median annual pay to $59,639. Seattle, another new metro added this month, had a wage increase of 3.1 percent. The city's median base pay notched up to $59,585, and the pay growth is largely due to the number of technology companies headquartered in the Pacific Northwest city.

Retail Jobs Reap Big YOY Growth

Retail jobs in general continued to show strong wage gains in April, including roles like cashier which saw an increase of 5.0 percent and a median base pay of $27,582, and store managers which were up 6.6 percent to $48,848.

"Traditional department store retail jobs are on the decline, as Americans are shifting away from 'commodity buying' to 'experience buying' that happens at smaller retailers and boutiques. Consumers are spending their dollars at smaller retailers that offer in-store experts and a pleasant shopping experience, and there is a need for these retail positions," said Chamberlain.

This may also be due to the large number of open retail jobs today—even as large department store jobs are declining, there are approximately 860,000 job postings in retail listed on Glassdoor across the U.S. Some of these jobs are in online retail, and the wage growth trend continues for warehouse associates, whose base pay was up 6.3 percent YOY in April to $39,920.

According to Chamberlain, "Jobs that are the highest paying aren't always where we see the biggest growth. At the national level, we're seeing strong pay gains for retail store managers and cashiers as employers struggle to fill these front-line roles." 

The weakest U.S. pay growth was for design engineers, a common manufacturing job, which experienced a pay decline of 0.3 percent YOY, to $70,616. Web developer salaries are also flat in April, with negative growth of 0.1 percent YOY. This follows several months of having the smallest or negative YOY growth for this job title.

For a list of jobs with the biggest gains and declines, visit the Glassdoor Economic Research blog. 

Highest and Lowest Paying Jobs

In addition to wage growth, the Glassdoor Local Pay Reports track the highest and lowest paying job titles each month.