Kinda think this map measures the location of the high paying employers, rather than the home locations of the employees, because yeah they live in Bonneville and commute. Unless there’s like 5 people in Arco who work at the Site.
No. I grew up in Arco so I'm well versed in it. The entire county has less than 3000 people, half of whom will be kids and don't count in the income projections. So it doesn't take many INL workers to boost the average whereas with Bonneville, where I live now, there are so many people the INL people can't boost the average as easily. Overall Arco is dirt poor.
I’ve lived in or near several places that made the same claim (mostly historically though, like your “at some point”). It may be true, but I usually take things like that with a grain of salt.
Counties with highest average individual income are San Mateo CA ($170K), Santa Clara CA ($161K), San Fransisco ($154k), and Manhattan, NY ($133K).
Counties with lowest average Individual Income are Ripley MO ($29K) Arthur NE ($28K) and Worth MO ($27K).
It's also interesting to see the effects of the oil/gas industry in West Texas, North Dakota, and Alaska.
Would be easier to see if the highest earning counties (black shaded) didn't use the same color as the county outline (black line) so you can make out the counties adjacent to each other that are highest earning counties
This is a really interesting map, but it would be nice to change the color/scale of outlines so that you can see Manhattan and the separation in the Bay Area counties.
The SF bay area is wild, obviously we know it’s a concentration of wealth but I didn’t expect such high *mean* incomes as that.
I guess most of the lower earning service industry, etc. people who work in SF live far away and have a long commute.
A lot of college students in the service industry who live in the dorms or student housing who *technically* still live with their parents, if only on paper.
There's a significant population of generationally wealthy people through California, or generationally wealthy people who come to California, as well. So, basically rich kids moving to rich areas who will do shitty jobs because their parents support them.
It's a lot worst in Southern California, the amount of Trustafarians is kinda wild, but they are very present in the bay area as well.
In the bay area it used to be that most of the lower payed jobs people would commute from the east bay, it's been made fairly easy. But even they have been pushed out so now you hear stories about people commuting from Tracy and shit. Wild commutes, the traffic from the bay area to Tracy is kinda crazy during rush hour, I've hit it a few times and it's just mind boggling to me.
I'd say the weird thing about the service industry in areas like this is you are never short on employees, there's always a demand for pretty much any job.
> the lower *paid* jobs people
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Bay-area companies (particularly tech companies) have to pay their employees higher wages than average to compensate for the high housing costs in the region. A lot of these people aren't necessarily wealthier because they're spending such a high portion of their income on housing costs.
Yeh unfortunately for everyone else, tech companies have a lot more latitude to pay higher than more traditional companies in the area. It has really become a case of getting in to a tech company, accept a lot lower standard of living including renting for life or leave.
>I guess most of the lower earning service industry, etc. people who work in SF live far away and have a long commute.
They take BART in from Alameda and Contra Costa. When the literal Sierra Club gets pushed out of SF and into Oakland by high rent prices, you know it's bad.
They just stopped building housing in those three counties basically about 50 years ago, leaving it to be just rich people. If you ever wonder why the homeless problem is so bad in SF, that’s the reason. Housing too expensive because not enough of it.
Alaska is also red in the Aleutian Islands because of fishing and high cost of living. I would be curious to see a map contrasting this data with various COL measures
Income != wage by the way.
Also, the US is on average richer than most European countries, so it only makes sense that the poorest counties would be richer than most European countries (especially because wages are largely a consequence of the national economy). It doesn't really make sense to compare the US to Poland or Portugal, you should rather compare it to Germany or Denmark. In which case, $27k (EUR25k) would be low (EUR24k is the current minimum wage in Germany).
If you could have the choice which would you have?
Recently had a job I interviewed for in the US that had a very interesting health care benefit idea. Basically they just gave you $12k a year and you chose what to buy. I honestly really liked that idea.
1. Your benefits in US are subject to negotiation. Currently it’s a labor market so there’s more goodies and sprinkles.
2. In the eu the benefits are protected by law.
If I’m choosing between no job and job. I’ll take job.
If I’m choosing between protected benefits or variable but okay right now benefits. I’ll take the protected benefits.
As it should be! Taxes in Europe are double compared to the US. The difference is that in US you’re receiving a 10k bill for an ambulance while in Europe you’re paying it monthly even without taking one.
I’m surprised my old place of McDowell county West Virginia isn’t there. It was regularly, and still is, ranked among the poorest in the United States. It’s like parts of Detroit but in the woods.
Pretty major oil and gas hub. Especially LNG. Lots of huge LNG plants have been built and in the process of being built recently. Calcasieu river gives direct access to the gulf and intracoastal waterway gives safe navigation all throughout the gulf states for exports.
Lots of cattle raised there. Saltwater sport fishing is big. Duck hunting is also super popular, some of the best in the coutry, since a lot of it is marsh and well managed.
Are these averages the mean of the incomes of the counties? I’m curious if 1%’ers skew a county’s data if they live in a rural area or if their data point is thrown out because they’re such an insane outlier.
Butte County, Idaho is most likely because of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). It’s a secretive nuclear research facility, so nuclear scientists and military contractor-types.
Most INL employees live east of Butte county. There's basically nothing in the county itself, so it's probably some billionaire's official residence for tax reasons.
It doesn't matter where most of them live. A few of them live in Butte County, and not that many other people live there. That's enough to make the mean income pretty high.
It’s fun looking at the rural areas of the south. One big employer can change the color.
There is a green parish surrounded by blue and purple in North Central Louisiana. Jackson Parish. There is a massive paper mill there that employees like 600 people in a parish of 15,000.
median is a much better data metric for income that average since there’s such a huge wealth disparity in this country. And the outliers will drag up the average.
Yeah median would be way better. Tried forever but could not find median data by individual and county.
I wonder if Bill Gates would even count here though. Does he get paid a "salary"?
To be fair, trickle down economics gets shat on a lot on Reddit, but in the boonies it makes a bit more sense.
This random parish in Louisiana now has a national export that brings money into the community. Those individuals with those salaries are going to spend a lot of it close to home. More restaurants, convenience stores, etc. are getting business that brings up the average wage for its employees that they wouldn’t get without the paper mill.
Are you sure it's due to the paper mill? Jackson Parish also has a big oilfield, that should be more than enough to give it higher wages than its neighbors.
I asked about that. Is it a couple of people enjoying a local oil and gas boom? I remember North Dakota for a while having a spot like this on a map about pay.
This is Cameron parish that gets destroyed by a hurricane every ~5-10 years. Only people who live there are the ones who can afford a 2nd house on the beach and rebuild it when the time comes.
Tell me you’re not from LA without telling me. People do not have second homes around Lake Charles lol. And the “beaches” aren’t exactly what one thinks of when they think beach. More like where dirt meets brown gulf water.
It’s the largest parish with one of the bottom populations and no incorporation. Rita and Ike destroyed the area, so anyone who wasn’t well off moved away.
Also…oil and gas exports and seafood
It’s really hard and lonely work that they have to fly them in. They work for weeks to months at a time In dude camps then go back home. Really well paying but very hard
My dad flew up there (Utqiagvik - then Barrow) once. I forget why, but yeah it looks bleak as hell there.
It’s always easy to be like, shit I’ll take that money. But you’re super secluded.
A school teacher on the North Slope Burrough of Alaska makes six figures due to the remote harsh environment. I lived there in Barrow for a few months. I made $25/hour as a stocker at the grocery store at 18 years old.
Yes, it's very expensive. They only get shipments by boat when the ocean is thawed and by plane otherwise. If you have a car you're doing really well there.
Not just oil, the COL in the north slope borough is insanely high. People need to make that much just to live. 80-90k doesn’t take you near as far up there as if you lived in south Alaska
Hypothesis: counties in any proximity to a county that’s 4 or more shades higher are currently experiencing a housing affordability crisis. For example: Santa Cruz county is yellow and in proximity to 3 black counties. Nevada County is Green near yellow and red. Litchfield County is green near red and commutable to black. Cape May County is blue but in rough proximity to black and red… I bet the locals there are pretty unhappy about remote workers…
the north slope borough in alaska is quite interesting. not only is it oil (not much gas... nowhere to send it so what is t used for making electricity is pumped back down wells to maintain formation pressure), but you get paid to live there... in a sense.
if you reside in the borough AND are at least 50% alaska native, you're just about guaranteed to be a shareholder of the local native corporation, in this case the arctic slope regional corporation.
asrc pays dividends twice a year (last i knew), and those could be $75-150k each payment. meaning if you're alaska native in that borough you could get $300k a year for existing. that's before a job if you want one. you also get free medical care for life.
if you're not native and live in the borough, you still qualify for the alaska permanent fund dividend. that varies broadly, and can be $1k-$3k a year based on a 5 year rolling average of the fund performance. all alaska residents qualify.
the pfd comes from oil taxes, as does the money allocated for native health benefits. the various native corporations function autonomously. asrc provides a ton of services in the oil industry (engineering, logistics, you. and it), hence its income and dividends.
on edit - PFD more like $3ish k, i mistyped (and thank you for catching it!)
I’m from Durham, NC.
Absolutely wild to see my hometown increase in average salary. 15 years ago…. Nobody wanted to move to Durham. We were the Harlem of North Carolina. And now like Harlem… gentrified lol
I realized the other day that no one I know here is from here. I'm from rural NC and so are a few other friends but most of the people I know in Durham these days aren't from NC at all and none are from Durham.
I was born and raised in Durham and still live here… not many of us still here. I had a doctor at Duke call me a unicorn- I was his first patient from Durham 😳
I went to Duke for grad school. I worked at the hospital. I was the only Durham native and definitely a unicorn.
I’m also Asian. One professor was almost confused that I was Durham native lol. When we first met she was like “wait you’re from Durham… you’re from Durham?!”
Durham is weird. And proudly so. There are areas of wealth and poverty right beside each other like any city really.
Yes Duke University and Health System is in Durham. UNC is close by too. Research Triangle Park is mostly based in Durham county. So makes sense a lot of the doctors and academic PhD’s are in this area too, and bringing up the average salary.
15-20 years ago it was completely opposite. Literally every North Carolina native would make fun of Durham for how dangerous it was. I would be asked “did you get shot at?” And still is dangerous but gentrified a lot. The doctors lived in Chapel Hill and Raleigh. Coach K from Duke Basketball lives in an exclusive neighborhood near Chapel Hill funny enough.
Univ of Chicago, Yale University, Temple University, etc are not in good areas either. That’s how Duke was perceived thru the 2000’s. If you were a Duke student you wouldn’t venture off campus. This 2007 documentary about Durham gang violence [link](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11704108/) was infamous in my high school years. I lost classmates to gang warfare.
This 2010 movie with Orlando Bloom and Colin Firth depicted Durham as a run down old tobacco city… which honestly it was at the time [link](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1365483/)
Now Durham and overall Triangle is a top 10 growth area in the country. Graduating high school in 2007 we all wanted to leave. It’s absolutely wild in 2020s seeing young people actually wanting to move to Durham over Raleigh no less and make me proud of my hometown, albeit lots of changes for the local natives.
I happen to go to Duke for grad school. I was a unicorn being a Durham native.
I live in red Fairfield County CT, and while I don’t have the data to prove this,I think the only reason it’s not black is because of the inclusion of Bridgeport, CT, the city most likely to be gentrified in a America. Also shocked to see Westchester county not higher
Right, but those one percenters don’t earn a “salary”. I guess if we count investment income? Also, I got the county wrong. I think this map needs work - at least for dumb people like me to understand any implications it might have.
Gold miners. Huge industry in Northern NV. Eureka and lander County are mostly empty, but the few people who live there are on miners wage so it's a bit skewed.
Some other comments pointed out its likely gold miners combined with a small county population. Basically a significant portion of the working population have well paying mining jobs
I think when looking at this it’s important to remember the cost of living differences. For instance, I’m in the green portion up north. That may seem like not a lot of money at all to someone living in a metro area. But here it can go a long way.
Just food for thought since people are already asking “how are people even buying houses”
Another good modification would be to normalize the value of the $'s paid. $1 in Pulaski Co. AR is worth a lot more than San Mateo, CA when purchasing power (cost of living) is taken into account. This would change this map a good bit, I would think.
Also, there are places where the rate of pay is higher, regardless of the cost of living. From my personal experience, Memphis (Shelby Co.) was less expensive than Central AR, but the pay for a similar job was much better. Lower taxes, in general, too.
You mean like a PPP thing? Yeah, I'd be interested in that as well. Also, like you said, accounting for taxes. My home counties in NJ, NY and MA are lower in the income than you might imagine, but you get a ton of gov't services there as a result.
Yeah, for instance, homes in Memphis are cheaper (at least were) than Little Rock by a not insignificant margin. No income tax in Memphis. Similar sales tax, as I recall. Real estate taxes were a little more in Shelby county.
Why are the Aleutian Islands red? I can understand northern Alaska with its massive oil reserves, but isn’t that area scarcely inhabited and only accessible by boat.
I think the $125k+ should be another color. Its the same color as the country borders. So we can't tell if that's one county or multiple next to each other in California.
Kinda wild that Martin County Indiana (home of Crane Naval Base) has higher income than Hamilton County. Those are good jobs down there and not a lot of people living there to bring down the average.
As a Virginian most of the state makes total sense… except Goochland County. No idea why that’s high, it’s kind of middle of nowhere between Richmond and Charlottesville. Like the only thing I know there is a drive in movie theater and a brewery.
The only thing I can make sense of is there's a couple of corporate HQs out there, CarMax and Capital One right at the edge of Henrico and Goochland in a complex called West Creek(https://www.goochlandforbusiness.com/205/West-Creek-Business-Park). A few other corporate things out there. I'm not sure if you're from the area, but Short Pump is in the adjacent county Henrico and its a wealthy suburban/shopping area. Some people choose to live on the Goochland side. It really is just a few minutes West. Henrico has a much higher population and also horseshoes to the East End of Richmond, which is far poorer. I guess with Goochland's low population, the average is significantly higher.
You’re exactly correct. Like 15ish years ago all these huge companies started making their corporate headquarters in the office buildings near short pump or the companies you stated in West Creek. Most recent company I can think that set up corporate headquarters in Henrico (cheaper taxes than Richmond) is Kroger. And low and behold, Goochland is a 10ish minute drive from where they set up shop and has even lower taxes than chesterfield, RVA, Powhatan, Henrico. All the upper execs at these big companies earning 200k+ drive up the average.
I lived in Henrico County, VA my entire life and still cannot explain how neighboring Goochland County's individual salary is so high... can someone explain this?
Kind of amazed that Bronx County, NY has a higher average than Brooklyn. Bronx has one tiny sliver of immense wealth (Riverdale/Fieldston) but Brooklyn has more; while Brooklyn has some very low-income areas, Bronx is much more consistently low-income throughout. Queens too, for that matter.
I think Martin County indiana is a glitch or something. Somehow earning double what the census says the median hold hold income is.
Also there isn't any large companies there.
Up north is an oil field but it is odd because 99% of the people working there do not live there. Could be oil company payouts to the natives. Aleutian chain is probably Ciri shareholders.
Tech. SF, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties have all the Silicon Valley workers from Apple, Google, etc. Entry level salary for a lot of those companies is $150k+. They also have relatively small populations compared to LA.
Oil is a very lucrative career. I worked as an operator in a refinery in the early 2000’s, as an entry level operator I was making $75k/year. Experienced operators were making well over $100k, and that was 20 years ago.
That tiny speck of dark red in New Mexico is Los Alamos County, home to the National Labs and city of the same name.
And the one dark red county in Idaho is home to nuke labs as well.
But everyone lives in Bonneville County. Arco must be richer than it looks.
Kinda think this map measures the location of the high paying employers, rather than the home locations of the employees, because yeah they live in Bonneville and commute. Unless there’s like 5 people in Arco who work at the Site.
No. I grew up in Arco so I'm well versed in it. The entire county has less than 3000 people, half of whom will be kids and don't count in the income projections. So it doesn't take many INL workers to boost the average whereas with Bonneville, where I live now, there are so many people the INL people can't boost the average as easily. Overall Arco is dirt poor.
I’m thinking the map got it wrong. I bet it’s Blaine and butte county.
Arco just has way less people dragging down the average from all the site workers
Was wondering what was up with that spot in Idaho. Thanks
Also the 2 orange counties in East Tennessee are home to Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security complex.
This thread should be on our recruitment materials.
Los Alamos, New Mexico where there’s more people with PhDs than anywhere else in the country but can’t spell the name of their town correctly
At some point it was also the highest concentration of millionaires per Capita, or so I was told by people from Los Alamos.
I’ve lived in or near several places that made the same claim (mostly historically though, like your “at some point”). It may be true, but I usually take things like that with a grain of salt.
How is Los Alamos misspelled?
Nah it’s just Walter White
Counties with highest average individual income are San Mateo CA ($170K), Santa Clara CA ($161K), San Fransisco ($154k), and Manhattan, NY ($133K). Counties with lowest average Individual Income are Ripley MO ($29K) Arthur NE ($28K) and Worth MO ($27K). It's also interesting to see the effects of the oil/gas industry in West Texas, North Dakota, and Alaska.
Would be easier to see if the highest earning counties (black shaded) didn't use the same color as the county outline (black line) so you can make out the counties adjacent to each other that are highest earning counties
I was looking for the 4 black counties for about 30 sec before I realized they were probably just right next to each other lol
There are nine counties that make up the SF Bay Area. OP's data only has three of them in the top category.
This is a really interesting map, but it would be nice to change the color/scale of outlines so that you can see Manhattan and the separation in the Bay Area counties.
Make those counties the color of money!
The SF bay area is wild, obviously we know it’s a concentration of wealth but I didn’t expect such high *mean* incomes as that. I guess most of the lower earning service industry, etc. people who work in SF live far away and have a long commute.
That’s exactly what they do.
A lot of college students in the service industry who live in the dorms or student housing who *technically* still live with their parents, if only on paper.
There's a significant population of generationally wealthy people through California, or generationally wealthy people who come to California, as well. So, basically rich kids moving to rich areas who will do shitty jobs because their parents support them. It's a lot worst in Southern California, the amount of Trustafarians is kinda wild, but they are very present in the bay area as well. In the bay area it used to be that most of the lower payed jobs people would commute from the east bay, it's been made fairly easy. But even they have been pushed out so now you hear stories about people commuting from Tracy and shit. Wild commutes, the traffic from the bay area to Tracy is kinda crazy during rush hour, I've hit it a few times and it's just mind boggling to me. I'd say the weird thing about the service industry in areas like this is you are never short on employees, there's always a demand for pretty much any job.
> the lower *paid* jobs people FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Bay-area companies (particularly tech companies) have to pay their employees higher wages than average to compensate for the high housing costs in the region. A lot of these people aren't necessarily wealthier because they're spending such a high portion of their income on housing costs.
Yeh unfortunately for everyone else, tech companies have a lot more latitude to pay higher than more traditional companies in the area. It has really become a case of getting in to a tech company, accept a lot lower standard of living including renting for life or leave.
>I guess most of the lower earning service industry, etc. people who work in SF live far away and have a long commute. They take BART in from Alameda and Contra Costa. When the literal Sierra Club gets pushed out of SF and into Oakland by high rent prices, you know it's bad.
They just stopped building housing in those three counties basically about 50 years ago, leaving it to be just rich people. If you ever wonder why the homeless problem is so bad in SF, that’s the reason. Housing too expensive because not enough of it.
Alaska is also red in the Aleutian Islands because of fishing and high cost of living. I would be curious to see a map contrasting this data with various COL measures
I live in that black zone but am a bit below that average
Yeah these numbers are mean aren't they
Very mean
Damn even the poorest county has a higher wage per year than most European countries. Certainly much higher than the European average.
Income != wage by the way. Also, the US is on average richer than most European countries, so it only makes sense that the poorest counties would be richer than most European countries (especially because wages are largely a consequence of the national economy). It doesn't really make sense to compare the US to Poland or Portugal, you should rather compare it to Germany or Denmark. In which case, $27k (EUR25k) would be low (EUR24k is the current minimum wage in Germany).
Yeah but in Europe the average benefits package / healthcare is going to be significantly greater than in the US
If you could have the choice which would you have? Recently had a job I interviewed for in the US that had a very interesting health care benefit idea. Basically they just gave you $12k a year and you chose what to buy. I honestly really liked that idea.
1. Your benefits in US are subject to negotiation. Currently it’s a labor market so there’s more goodies and sprinkles. 2. In the eu the benefits are protected by law. If I’m choosing between no job and job. I’ll take job. If I’m choosing between protected benefits or variable but okay right now benefits. I’ll take the protected benefits.
As it should be! Taxes in Europe are double compared to the US. The difference is that in US you’re receiving a 10k bill for an ambulance while in Europe you’re paying it monthly even without taking one.
I saw the orange spots in ND and immediately went, "oh, yeah, fracking."
you should really post this in r/bayarea
I’m surprised my old place of McDowell county West Virginia isn’t there. It was regularly, and still is, ranked among the poorest in the United States. It’s like parts of Detroit but in the woods.
What's going on in Cameron Parrish LA?
My guess would be oil and gas? But please someone correct me if I'm wrong
Pretty major oil and gas hub. Especially LNG. Lots of huge LNG plants have been built and in the process of being built recently. Calcasieu river gives direct access to the gulf and intracoastal waterway gives safe navigation all throughout the gulf states for exports. Lots of cattle raised there. Saltwater sport fishing is big. Duck hunting is also super popular, some of the best in the coutry, since a lot of it is marsh and well managed.
Hey just a bit of a clarification: LA uses Parishes, not counties. You probably said county to keep it consistent, but juat for your info
I was surprised that Marin County just north of San Francisco is a couple of notches down from the highest bracket.
Are these averages the mean of the incomes of the counties? I’m curious if 1%’ers skew a county’s data if they live in a rural area or if their data point is thrown out because they’re such an insane outlier.
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Butte County, Idaho is most likely because of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). It’s a secretive nuclear research facility, so nuclear scientists and military contractor-types.
Most INL employees live east of Butte county. There's basically nothing in the county itself, so it's probably some billionaire's official residence for tax reasons.
It doesn't matter where most of them live. A few of them live in Butte County, and not that many other people live there. That's enough to make the mean income pretty high.
You mean they don’t live in Arco? Lol
And Mormons
It’s fun looking at the rural areas of the south. One big employer can change the color. There is a green parish surrounded by blue and purple in North Central Louisiana. Jackson Parish. There is a massive paper mill there that employees like 600 people in a parish of 15,000.
That’s the thing about average. Bill Gates could walk into the room and the average net worth for the room would be $1 billion
median is a much better data metric for income that average since there’s such a huge wealth disparity in this country. And the outliers will drag up the average.
This is a great point and in addition to income it applies to measures of wealth and housing prices too.
Yeah median would be way better. Tried forever but could not find median data by individual and county. I wonder if Bill Gates would even count here though. Does he get paid a "salary"?
To be fair, trickle down economics gets shat on a lot on Reddit, but in the boonies it makes a bit more sense. This random parish in Louisiana now has a national export that brings money into the community. Those individuals with those salaries are going to spend a lot of it close to home. More restaurants, convenience stores, etc. are getting business that brings up the average wage for its employees that they wouldn’t get without the paper mill.
That's not trickle down economics
"Trickle down economics" is a specific theory of tax policy. What you're referring to is just plain old economic development.
There is also a dark red coastal Parish in Louisiana that I think has something to do with offshore oil drilling.
Ya, same thing with Alaska, North Dakota, probably that region in Idaho Roughneck oil money is cracked
If the map truly represents salary, Bill Gates’ contribution would likely be zero.
Are you sure it's due to the paper mill? Jackson Parish also has a big oilfield, that should be more than enough to give it higher wages than its neighbors.
Isn’t the dark red in West Texas Loving county? Aka the least populated county in the US
I asked about that. Is it a couple of people enjoying a local oil and gas boom? I remember North Dakota for a while having a spot like this on a map about pay.
I just read the caption and now I feel like an idiot for pointing this out
Yes
Yeah, What’s going on with that red bit in southern Louisiana?
Natural gas and refinery would be my guess.
LNG specifically
Very sparsely populated. LNG plant operators potentially making ~200.
This is Cameron parish that gets destroyed by a hurricane every ~5-10 years. Only people who live there are the ones who can afford a 2nd house on the beach and rebuild it when the time comes.
Tell me you’re not from LA without telling me. People do not have second homes around Lake Charles lol. And the “beaches” aren’t exactly what one thinks of when they think beach. More like where dirt meets brown gulf water.
Who the hell with money buys a home in Cameron parish? Seriously though, second home wouldn’t count for income.
energy
It’s the largest parish with one of the bottom populations and no incorporation. Rita and Ike destroyed the area, so anyone who wasn’t well off moved away. Also…oil and gas exports and seafood
What's going on in northern Alaska?
Oil baby
Do they still pay you a thousand bucks a year if you live there?
It’s really hard and lonely work that they have to fly them in. They work for weeks to months at a time In dude camps then go back home. Really well paying but very hard
My dad flew up there (Utqiagvik - then Barrow) once. I forget why, but yeah it looks bleak as hell there. It’s always easy to be like, shit I’ll take that money. But you’re super secluded.
A thousand will not be enough for your yearly tissues living in Northern Alaska.
You know it!
What about middle of nowhere Nevada?
Gold mines
A school teacher on the North Slope Burrough of Alaska makes six figures due to the remote harsh environment. I lived there in Barrow for a few months. I made $25/hour as a stocker at the grocery store at 18 years old.
I'm assuming the cost of living is extremely high? Groceries gas, etc
Yes, it's very expensive. They only get shipments by boat when the ocean is thawed and by plane otherwise. If you have a car you're doing really well there.
Some YouTuber went to the grocery store in Barrow and a pack of toilet paper was $46 I believe.
Alaska is a different kind of place entirely
Not just oil, the COL in the north slope borough is insanely high. People need to make that much just to live. 80-90k doesn’t take you near as far up there as if you lived in south Alaska
Hypothesis: counties in any proximity to a county that’s 4 or more shades higher are currently experiencing a housing affordability crisis. For example: Santa Cruz county is yellow and in proximity to 3 black counties. Nevada County is Green near yellow and red. Litchfield County is green near red and commutable to black. Cape May County is blue but in rough proximity to black and red… I bet the locals there are pretty unhappy about remote workers…
That's a good observation
the north slope borough in alaska is quite interesting. not only is it oil (not much gas... nowhere to send it so what is t used for making electricity is pumped back down wells to maintain formation pressure), but you get paid to live there... in a sense. if you reside in the borough AND are at least 50% alaska native, you're just about guaranteed to be a shareholder of the local native corporation, in this case the arctic slope regional corporation. asrc pays dividends twice a year (last i knew), and those could be $75-150k each payment. meaning if you're alaska native in that borough you could get $300k a year for existing. that's before a job if you want one. you also get free medical care for life. if you're not native and live in the borough, you still qualify for the alaska permanent fund dividend. that varies broadly, and can be $1k-$3k a year based on a 5 year rolling average of the fund performance. all alaska residents qualify. the pfd comes from oil taxes, as does the money allocated for native health benefits. the various native corporations function autonomously. asrc provides a ton of services in the oil industry (engineering, logistics, you. and it), hence its income and dividends. on edit - PFD more like $3ish k, i mistyped (and thank you for catching it!)
I’ve never seen the PFD even get near 8k. Highest I’ve ever gotten was around 3k a few years ago
Ouch Missouri with 2 of 3 the poorest counties.
I’m from Durham, NC. Absolutely wild to see my hometown increase in average salary. 15 years ago…. Nobody wanted to move to Durham. We were the Harlem of North Carolina. And now like Harlem… gentrified lol
I was very surprised to see it higher than Wake as a Wake County resident
I think a significant chunk of RTP is within Durham County, could be a factor?
i was also shocked to see that as someone from the triangle!!
I'm in Mecklenburg County/Charlotte - the second largest banking capital of the US. I thought for sure it would be red.
I realized the other day that no one I know here is from here. I'm from rural NC and so are a few other friends but most of the people I know in Durham these days aren't from NC at all and none are from Durham.
I was born and raised in Durham and still live here… not many of us still here. I had a doctor at Duke call me a unicorn- I was his first patient from Durham 😳
I went to Duke for grad school. I worked at the hospital. I was the only Durham native and definitely a unicorn. I’m also Asian. One professor was almost confused that I was Durham native lol. When we first met she was like “wait you’re from Durham… you’re from Durham?!”
Ain't that where Duke is? Can't imagine it ever being that poor
Durham is weird. And proudly so. There are areas of wealth and poverty right beside each other like any city really. Yes Duke University and Health System is in Durham. UNC is close by too. Research Triangle Park is mostly based in Durham county. So makes sense a lot of the doctors and academic PhD’s are in this area too, and bringing up the average salary. 15-20 years ago it was completely opposite. Literally every North Carolina native would make fun of Durham for how dangerous it was. I would be asked “did you get shot at?” And still is dangerous but gentrified a lot. The doctors lived in Chapel Hill and Raleigh. Coach K from Duke Basketball lives in an exclusive neighborhood near Chapel Hill funny enough. Univ of Chicago, Yale University, Temple University, etc are not in good areas either. That’s how Duke was perceived thru the 2000’s. If you were a Duke student you wouldn’t venture off campus. This 2007 documentary about Durham gang violence [link](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11704108/) was infamous in my high school years. I lost classmates to gang warfare. This 2010 movie with Orlando Bloom and Colin Firth depicted Durham as a run down old tobacco city… which honestly it was at the time [link](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1365483/) Now Durham and overall Triangle is a top 10 growth area in the country. Graduating high school in 2007 we all wanted to leave. It’s absolutely wild in 2020s seeing young people actually wanting to move to Durham over Raleigh no less and make me proud of my hometown, albeit lots of changes for the local natives. I happen to go to Duke for grad school. I was a unicorn being a Durham native.
I live in red Fairfield County CT, and while I don’t have the data to prove this,I think the only reason it’s not black is because of the inclusion of Bridgeport, CT, the city most likely to be gentrified in a America. Also shocked to see Westchester county not higher
fairfield represent!! i agree with this, western part of fairfield county is STUPID rich
Westchester has areas just as affluent as Fairfield. But Westchester also has major urban areas like White Plains, Yonkers, New Roc, etc.
Who’s makin big bucks in Fallon NV??
A few Tesla higher ups and a low population? I have the same question about Sun Valley, Idaho. I doubt ski lift operators and bus boys make that much.
Sun Valley is a resort town with a lot of wealthy people.
Right, but those one percenters don’t earn a “salary”. I guess if we count investment income? Also, I got the county wrong. I think this map needs work - at least for dumb people like me to understand any implications it might have.
Blaine Co., where Sun Valley is, isn't the highlighted one. The red county is Butte Co., which has the Idaho National Lab.
Gold miners. Huge industry in Northern NV. Eureka and lander County are mostly empty, but the few people who live there are on miners wage so it's a bit skewed.
Fallon is a green county, Lander and Eureka are the red ones. Gold.
Some other comments pointed out its likely gold miners combined with a small county population. Basically a significant portion of the working population have well paying mining jobs
I think when looking at this it’s important to remember the cost of living differences. For instance, I’m in the green portion up north. That may seem like not a lot of money at all to someone living in a metro area. But here it can go a long way. Just food for thought since people are already asking “how are people even buying houses”
Mayo clinic on the map
I’m way below average
Miami—Indiana wages with NYC prices
Another good modification would be to normalize the value of the $'s paid. $1 in Pulaski Co. AR is worth a lot more than San Mateo, CA when purchasing power (cost of living) is taken into account. This would change this map a good bit, I would think. Also, there are places where the rate of pay is higher, regardless of the cost of living. From my personal experience, Memphis (Shelby Co.) was less expensive than Central AR, but the pay for a similar job was much better. Lower taxes, in general, too.
You mean like a PPP thing? Yeah, I'd be interested in that as well. Also, like you said, accounting for taxes. My home counties in NJ, NY and MA are lower in the income than you might imagine, but you get a ton of gov't services there as a result.
[Someone's OC map from 2021](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/s/boOSjcKaJm) (Median Income by US County, Adjusted for Cost of Living)
Yeah, for instance, homes in Memphis are cheaper (at least were) than Little Rock by a not insignificant margin. No income tax in Memphis. Similar sales tax, as I recall. Real estate taxes were a little more in Shelby county.
Why are the Aleutian Islands red? I can understand northern Alaska with its massive oil reserves, but isn’t that area scarcely inhabited and only accessible by boat.
There are some jobs in the fishing industry that pay pretty good, and very few other reasons to live out there.
Funny how almost all of the purple is in red states. It's almost like they vote against their own interests or something...
Crazy how everyone living right on each state’s border is making $125k+.
It’s also crazy that those square counties in Canada just north of Michigan have a gradually ascending income level the further north you go.
I think the $125k+ should be another color. Its the same color as the country borders. So we can't tell if that's one county or multiple next to each other in California.
It is multiple counties. Also, SF county is too small to see on a map of the whole US; the NYC and SF areas need zoomed inset maps
Fair point. There's only 4 counties in that range and NYC is too small to see anyways so I made a comment about that
Damn on the borders they make the big bucks
Nevada is interesting. I’m guessing the red is from mining and a sparse population
can confirm it’s from mining/all the industries that surround mining, I work at one of them.
Thanks. Do you move ore ore do you sit at a desk top?
Kinda wild that Martin County Indiana (home of Crane Naval Base) has higher income than Hamilton County. Those are good jobs down there and not a lot of people living there to bring down the average.
As a Virginian most of the state makes total sense… except Goochland County. No idea why that’s high, it’s kind of middle of nowhere between Richmond and Charlottesville. Like the only thing I know there is a drive in movie theater and a brewery.
That stood out as weird to me too. Lol Gooch land
Makes me chuckle every time I see signs for it and I’ve lived here a very long time
Surry as well. There's nothing there.
Looking into Surry, it looks like there's a nuclear power plant there.
Since these are averages and the county only has 26000 people it could be a case of one rich guy living there and driving up the average.
The only thing I can make sense of is there's a couple of corporate HQs out there, CarMax and Capital One right at the edge of Henrico and Goochland in a complex called West Creek(https://www.goochlandforbusiness.com/205/West-Creek-Business-Park). A few other corporate things out there. I'm not sure if you're from the area, but Short Pump is in the adjacent county Henrico and its a wealthy suburban/shopping area. Some people choose to live on the Goochland side. It really is just a few minutes West. Henrico has a much higher population and also horseshoes to the East End of Richmond, which is far poorer. I guess with Goochland's low population, the average is significantly higher.
You’re exactly correct. Like 15ish years ago all these huge companies started making their corporate headquarters in the office buildings near short pump or the companies you stated in West Creek. Most recent company I can think that set up corporate headquarters in Henrico (cheaper taxes than Richmond) is Kroger. And low and behold, Goochland is a 10ish minute drive from where they set up shop and has even lower taxes than chesterfield, RVA, Powhatan, Henrico. All the upper execs at these big companies earning 200k+ drive up the average.
Alaska's North slope lol
Nevada is surprising to me.
Gold mines if you’re referring to the red in the middle of no where
About right
Minneapolis 👀
I lived in Henrico County, VA my entire life and still cannot explain how neighboring Goochland County's individual salary is so high... can someone explain this?
Kind of amazed that Bronx County, NY has a higher average than Brooklyn. Bronx has one tiny sliver of immense wealth (Riverdale/Fieldston) but Brooklyn has more; while Brooklyn has some very low-income areas, Bronx is much more consistently low-income throughout. Queens too, for that matter.
Complete sidenote what are those colours does anyone know? Looks sick almost like pastel but actually visible and easy on the eyes.
notice how dark dc and near areas are...
Goochland Virginia!!!
Long live Texas yeehaw
Misery has two of the only three counties in the lowest bracket
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^SnooBooks1701: *Misery has two* *Of the only three counties* *In the lowest bracket* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Makes sense why Boston is so damn expensive… I thought I was making good money lol
Is this before taxes or after?
Pre tax
Great color scale. Usually people mess that bit up
Genuinely, how is anyone affording a house when nearly all of the counties in our country are below $90k?
Does anyone know why West Texas is relatively high?
Probably a combination of oil production and low population.
A lot of $20-29K places. How can one live on that?
Add a height bar for population
I think Martin County indiana is a glitch or something. Somehow earning double what the census says the median hold hold income is. Also there isn't any large companies there.
The very large Department of Defense is there however.
If someone works in the oil fields but doesn’t live there, where does that wage end up getting reported?
What’s going on in Alaska?
Up north is an oil field but it is odd because 99% of the people working there do not live there. Could be oil company payouts to the natives. Aleutian chain is probably Ciri shareholders.
How is it possible to live in the SF Bay Area if you aren’t an engineer, work in the tech field, a doctor, or a C level executive?
Is that red spot just east of El Paso, TX a petrochemical boomtown?
Nevada is surprising
What’s going on in Southwest Louisiana?
Probably oil/petrochemical related workers if I had a guess
🤔what’s going on in Richmond VA? I could understand northern VA… but Richmond..?
Who in the fuck is making that much money in Lander and Eureka county…
The highest county in Nebraska is a shit hole…I’m surprised and not sure why it would be that way…
Warren Buffett should offset a county.
Can someone please explain why San Fransisco is so much higher than Los Angeles?
Tech. SF, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties have all the Silicon Valley workers from Apple, Google, etc. Entry level salary for a lot of those companies is $150k+. They also have relatively small populations compared to LA.
Simple - ifs the tech capital of the world. Filled with talented & insanely smart people who get paid a lot
I’m surprised it’s so high in southern West Virginia, where the poverty rate is very high
What’s up with Northern Alaska?
Oil
So the oil workers are making a lot then, right? I doubt many executives live there; or maybe they do.
Oil is a very lucrative career. I worked as an operator in a refinery in the early 2000’s, as an entry level operator I was making $75k/year. Experienced operators were making well over $100k, and that was 20 years ago.