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Management Occupations Remains the Highest Compensated Major Occupation Group in 2023
June 10, 2024
Michigan’s Median Wage Ranked in the Middle of All States in 2023
The median wage represents the wage where 50 percent of positions pay both above and below this wage. Michigan’s statewide median wage across all occupations in 2023 was $22.57, meanwhile the median wage for the United States was slightly higher at $23.11 per hour. Between 2016 and 2020 Michigan’s median wage ranked 24th among states before climbing to 21st in 2021. Michigan’s median wage has since subsided to 23rd in 2022 and most recently to 26th in 2023.
The Median Wages of Management, Computer and Mathematics, and Architecture and Engineering Occupations Led the Major Occupation Groups
The OEWS program categorizes all job titles into approximately 800 standard occupations and then summarizes them into twenty-two major occupation groups. Management occupations remains the major group with the highest median wage at $51.08 per hour. In 2023, there were 277,000 reported managers across the state. The top four manager occupations by earnings in this group were Chief executives; Architectural and engineering; Computers and information; and Sales managers.
The second highest paid major group was Computer and mathematics occupations earning $42.69. There were 124,000 reported jobs in this group in 2023. The jobs that earned the most in this category were Database architects, Computer and information security researchers, and Statisticians.
Architecture and engineering was the third highest paid occupation group, with a median wage of $40.31 per hour. The three highest paid occupations in this group were Nuclear engineers, Computer hardware engineers, and Petroleum engineers. There were 126,000 positions in this major group last year.
Service Occupations Typically Had a Lower Median Wage
Food preparation and service related; Personal care service; and Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations had the lowest median wage out of the twenty-two major groups. Food preparation and service workers earned the least, with the median worker earning $14.41 per hour. The 356,000 positions in this group accounted for nearly 8.2 percent of all occupations in Michigan.
Within Food preparation and service related occupations is Fast food and counter workers. This occupation was the third largest job in terms of employment in Michigan. It also had a median wage of $13.78 per hour in 2023, one of the lowest paid of all occupations in the state.
Personal care workers earned a median wage of $14.87 per hour. These positions accounted for much less of the overall share of Michigan occupational employment with only 81,200 jobs in this category. Examples of jobs in this group include Childcare workers, Amusement and recreation workers, and Hairdressers.
Michigan’s 125,000 Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance workers earned a median hourly wage of $17.02. Roughly 75 percent of positions in this group were considered Janitors and cleaners or Landscaping and grounds keeping workers. These two occupations, along with Maids and housekeeping cleaners had the lowest median wages within this major group.
Management occupations receive top earnings while service occupations earn the least among occupation groups.
Occupational Group | Wage at 10 Percentile | Median Wage | Wage at 90 Percentile |
Management | $25.06 | $51.08 | $100.13 |
Computer and Mathematical | $23.29 | $42.69 | $67.24 |
Architecture and Engineering | $23.97 | $40.31 | $63.18 |
Legal | $22.31 | $38.76 | $88.37 |
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical | $18.80 | $37.91 | $70.71 |
Business and Financial Operations | $21.30 | $36.10 | $61.25 |
Life, Physical, and Social Science | $21.57 | $35.93 | $62.32 |
Construction and Extraction | $18.12 | $27.79 | $41.26 |
Educational Instruction and Library | $14.37 |
$25.77 | $47.10 |
Installation, Maintenance, and Repair |
$16.69 | $24.48 |
$39.74 |
Community and Social Service |
$16.36 | $23.83 | $37.34 |
Protective Service | $14.21 | $23.15 | $39.77 |
Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media |
$14.00 | $23.10 | $45.80 |
All Occupations | $13.88 | $22.57 | $49.71 |
Office and Administrative Support | $14.58 |
$20.82 |
$31.53 |
Production | $15.50 | $20.13 |
$33.16 |
Transportation and Material Moving | $14.00 | $18.76 | $30.23 |
Farming, Fishing, and Forestry |
$14.46 |
$18.11 |
$29.29 |
Healthcare Support |
$13.17 |
$17.36 | $22.49 |
Sales and Related |
$12.40 | $17.22 | $46.85 |
Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance |
$13.47 |
$17.02 | $23.25 |
Personal Care and Service |
$11.31 | $14.87 | $25.43 |
Food Preparation and Serving Related |
$11.03 | $14.41 | $22.58 |
Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
More People Were Employed in Office Administration Occupations Than Any Other Major Group
Among the major groups, Office and administrative support occupations accounted for 517,000 workers, or nearly 12 percent of all jobs in Michigan. The median hourly wage for these occupations was $20.82 which was near the median for all occupations statewide. Detailed occupations with the most employment in this group were Office clerks, general; Customer service representatives; and Secretaries and administrative assistants.
Production occupations had the next largest employment out of the occupation groups. With 448,000 workers, this group represented over 10 percent of all occupations in 2023. Their median wage was $20.13 an hour. This group was primarily comprised of Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators, which accounted for 27.6 percent of Production occupations, and 2.8 percent of all jobs in Michigan. These workers earned a median hourly wage of $18.52.
Statewide Wage Ranges Show a Shift Toward Higher Hourly Wages
The percentage of employees earning from under $15 per hour to over $55 in $5 increments are displayed in a graph below. These “bins” demonstrate how Michigan workers are distributed among the wage range. A quarter of all workers in the State are in the $15-20 range. Only one in every four workers in Michigan earns more than $35 per hour.
When comparing 2023 and 2022 estimates, we can see that the percentage of workers earning under $15 per hour has experienced a sizable decline while most other wage ranges increased slightly.
Michigan wage distribution shows a shift from jobs paying under $15 toward higher wages.
Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Each year, the Michigan Center for Data and Analytics conducts the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, which is a federal-state cooperative program with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This program annually surveys approximately 400,000 nonfarm establishments nationwide (including 11,000 in Michigan) to collect employment and wage information for over 800 Standard Occupational Classification job titles. This is the only official survey that provides employment levels and wages for individual occupations for the nation, states, and local areas.
Download custom data, including information by detailed occupation, with the MCDA Data Search tool.
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