In general, the pay of American workers has risen this year. One reason is low unemployment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the jobless rate dropped to 3.8% last month as the economy added 678,000 jobs. Another reason is the “Great Resignation.” People have left jobs at record levels, presumably to find others with higher pay. Companies that include Amazon, the second-largest employer in the country, have needed to raise wages to keep and attract workers.
As has always been the case, income has always been much higher in some states than in others. States in the northeast generally have well-paid populations. These states are often home to high-tech and financial services jobs. People in the deep south often have low wages. Most analyses of state pay show the figures are low in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. These states have high poverty levels and the problems that go with it, including poor health outcomes and low levels of educational attainment.
For its Underpaid States and Countries report, employment search service Lensa used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau to calculate income and hours worked. The report says, “A side-by-side comparison of these two metrics has shown us which states and countries pay workers the most, and where workers are being underpaid.”
The analysis divides numbers into four categories: 1) mean average working hours, 2) average working hours per year, 3) average annual income per capita and 4) average earnings per hour worked.
The state where workers earn the least amount per hour worked was Mississippi. This was due almost exclusively to the average income per hour worked. For the state, the annual figure was $42,129, which translates into $20.62 an hour. The poverty level for a family of four in the United States is $27,750. The only mitigating factor for people who live in Mississippi is that it has a low cost of living.
These are the 10 most underpaid states:
| State | Annual | Per Hour |
|---|---|---|
| Mississippi | $42,129 | $20.62 |
| West Virginia | $44,994 | $22.02 |
| Alabama | $46,479 | $22.80 |
| Arkansas | $47,235 | $23.11 |
| New Mexico | $46,338 | $23.27 |
| Kentucky | $47,339 | $23.34 |
| South Carolina | $48,021 | $23.56 |
| Oklahoma | $49,878 | $24.04 |
| Idaho | $48,759 | $24.36 |
| Arizona | $49,648 | $24.67 |
Click here to see which are America’s richest and poorest states.
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