News

US foodservice 2016 Q4 wage growth among best of all industries

January 10, 2017

PayScale Inc. said its latest numbers indicated that food service and restaurant wages grew by 3.6 percent over the past year, far outpacing the national average and making food service one of just three business sectors to experience what the company called "remarkable wage growth" in the final quarter of last year, according to a news  release. The highest wage growth occurred in transportation and the third-highest, behind food service, occurred in legal position wage growth, according to the company. 

Those were among the many business sectors in the U.S. in the last quarter of last year, where wage growth helped to pull up the overall national wage growth to well beyond the predicted 1 percent, to 1.7 percent annually year-over-year, according to PayScale. 

"Many experts expected to see poor performance across various economic indicators due to uncertainty after the election, as markets and industries lacked confidence about the future climate for our businesses," PayScale Lead Economist and Data Analytics Vice President Katie Bardaro said, adding that she believes that trend of "stronger than average wage growth in select industries and jobs" will continue in Q1 2017.

Other key findings of the company's Q4 data for the U.S., U.K. and Canada, include:

• The largest percentage increase occurred in transportation, with 4.5 percent annual wage growth, followed by food service at 3.6 percent, then legal jobs with 2.8 percent wage growth. 
• Significant wage contraction occurred, however, in real estate, rental and leasing jobs, which PayScale data shows grew just 0.2 percent.
• Following Brexit in the U.K.wages have not contracted, but have grown 1.8 percent annually.
• In most of Canada,wages grew 1.0 percent annually in Q4, except in Vancouver which saw a 2.9 percent increase in annual wage growth.