Survey Shows Wages Up 3% Across Major Industry Sectors

According to the 2019 Salary Guide just released by Randstad US, nationwide wages across major industry sectors rose approximately 3% in 2018.
The Salary Guide includes national pay rates for a variety of positions within the engineering, finance and accounting, healthcare (clinical and non-clinical), human resources, technology, life sciences, manufacturing and logistics, and office and administration fields.
The 3% increase in wages is in line with recent BLS data from the past three years, but not on pace with inflation, said Randstad in a statement, concluding that this could be a major factor contributing to the increase in people quitting their jobs in search of higher-paying ones.
In fact, the latest BLS jobs report lists the number of job leavers (defined as people who voluntarily quit their previous job and immediately began looking for new employment) in December 2018 at 839,000, an increase of 113,000 from December 2017.

New Definition of ‘Competitive Salary’

The fact that workers are quitting their jobs without lining up their next one shows high overall confidence in their abilities to land a new job quickly—which is bad news for employers, said Randstad.
“Simply put, the data we’re seeing around the tighter labor economy means the definition of a ‘competitive’ salary has changed,” said Jim Link, chief human resources officer, Randstad North America.

"It's no longer enough for organizations to pay on par with other companies. Being competitive now means employers must offer salaries and benefits that differentiate themselves in a very tight labor market."

Sample Salaries

A sample of what you'll find in Randstad's 2019 Salary Guide:
Engineering
Electrical Engineer (senior-level)
$127,950
Finance and Accounting
Accounts Payable Manager (mid-level)
$82,157–$99,713
Healthcare
Ultrasound/Sonographer (entry-level)
$27.84/hour
Non-clinical Healthcare
Medical Records Administrator (senior-level)
$50.43/hour
Human Resources
Benefits Analyst (mid-level)
$59,033–$69,944
Information Technology
Software Development Architect (entry-level)
$82,920
Life Sciences
Biostatistician (senior-level)
$134,000
Manufacturing and Logistics
Forklift Operator (mid-level)
$17.03/hour
Office and Administration
Receptionist (entry-level)
$13.85/hour

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