Lehner

SALEM — Oregon wages vary considerably by region, with wages in the Portland metro area 36% higher than in the eastern part of the state.

People working in Western Oregon’s Multnomah and Washington counties earn an average of $34.80 per hour, or a little more than $72,000 annually for a full-time worker. That’s according to an annual survey of employers by the Oregon Employment Department, tallied by state occupational economist Jason Payton in a report last month.

Grouped together, eight counties in Eastern Oregon were the lowest-paid region in the state, with an hourly average of $25.63. That works out to $53,300 on an annual basis.

Costs of living are much higher around Portland, of course. Nonetheless, the latest figures underscore the state’s persistent economic divide.

Panel surveys that produced the regional wage data are a snapshot in time, Payton explains, so aren’t so useful in gauging how wages are holding up against inflation or whether paychecks are growing faster in one region or another.

But a separate set of annual federal data helps illuminate those topics. State economist Josh Lehner crunched new numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and found that Oregon incomes didn’t quite keep up with inflation last year. Incomes grew by 5.7%, while inflation rose by 6% to 8%, depending on the metric you choose.

“Real Oregon income for the typical household declined last year,” Lehner wrote. “A lot of us lost ground.”

In some places, though, income gains were quite robust and outpacing inflation. The growth in average income in Deschutes County was the fourth-fastest in the nation between 2019 and 2002, Lehner found. Grants Pass ranked No. 11. In both cases, averages were skewed upward by gains at the top of the income ladder.

And Lehner notes that Medford incomes have also been growing faster than most parts of the country, with Southern Oregon recovering from the pandemic much faster than it did from the Great Recession.

“Medford’s relative income position compared to the statewide numbers hasn’t been this strong since the mid-2000s,” Lehner wrote.

Portland incomes didn’t soar, but they didn’t sag, either.

“Despite the negative headlines, and the real social challenges, Portland’s economic performance continues to be right in the middle of the pack,” Lehner wrote. “Median household income growth ranks in the 52nd percentile nationwide, while average income growth is a bit stronger at the 70th percentile.”

Somewhat mysteriously, though, Lehner found that median inflation-adjusted incomes in Salem, Albany and Corvallis fell between 2019 and 2022. Incomes in Corvallis were down by nearly 15% over that period.

There isn’t an obvious explanation for why the middle Willamette Valley appeared to hit the skids last year. Lehner said he wondered if some phenomenon associated with university towns could have explained the steep dip in Corvallis income but couldn’t find clear patterns across similar cities.

It’s an area that grew strongly in the early years of the pandemic, as people migrated away from cities at the start of the work-from-home era.

“Did that suddenly reverse as the pandemic ended,” Lehner wondered, “or is this just more about year-to-year (statistical) noise?”