Silicon Valley Wages are Top in California and 2nd in Country

Area incomes top 2000 level for first time
AVERAGE '06 WAGE WAS $76,562
By Pete CareyMercury News

It's time to shake off those dot-com doldrums once and for all. Santa Clara County is back in a big way, scoring at the top in wages and personal income, according to federal data released Thursday.

The county's performance in 2006, the most recent year for which data is available, was strong in several key categories: personal income, or the sum of income from all sources for the year; per capita income, which is personal income divided by the population; and the average wage, which excludes self-earned income.

For the first time, the county's 2006 personal income of $95.9 billion topped a previous peak of $91.3 billion reached in 2000. The county's personal income grew by 8.7 percent over the previous year.

That impressive performance almost certainly continued in 2007, said Stephen Levy of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. "So we are back to our traditional role in terms of having a high-wage economy, but also one that is producing substantial income gains," Levy said.

The county's per capita personal income of $55,735 ranked 30th among the nation's counties and fourth in the state. The Bay Area had the state's top five counties in per capita personal income in 2006, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis report. California's average was $39,626, a gain of 5.7 percent over 2005. In average wage, Santa Clara County's $76,562 in 2006 put it ahead of every other county in California and second in the nation, according to the bureau's data. The only one of the country's 3,111 counties with a higher wage per job is New York County at $90,555. The figure covers jobs and salaries but excludes self-employment income, for example from partnerships and professionals such as lawyers and doctors and people who work for themselves.

But there's a hitch. It costs more to live here.
"One explanation for the rankings is the cost of living," said Bureau of Economic Analysis economist David G. Lenze. "That will be built into the price of housing in particular, and the other services that you buy."
The data also shows that less of the county's income is being generated by people living outside the area, Levy said. "We're not as dependent on commuting as we used to be," he said.
The Bay Area had the state's top counties in average wage per job. Santa Clara was first with $76,562, followed by San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda and Marin.
The state's average wage was $48,027.