Table 2. Average hourly earnings and dispersion percents for nine major occupational groups, private industry and State and local government, National Compensation Survey, 1999 (U.S. = $15.36)
Major occupational groups Private industry State
and
local
government		 Dis-
per-
sion
percent (1)
Goods producing Service producing
Mining Con-
struc-
tion		 Manu-
fac-
turing		 Trans-
porta-
tion
and
public utilities		 Whole-
sale
trade		 Retail
trade		 Finance,
insur-
ance,
and
real estate		 Services
White-collar occupations:

Professional
specialty and
technical

 $32.15 $22.81 $25.78 $29.66 $27.07 $21.05 $24.60 $23.27 $26.04 53

Executive,
administrative,
and managerial

 33.26 24.37 32.64 30.6 29.32 20.46 27.66 27.17 25.89 63

Sales

 27.8 20.22 23.99 18.46 19.92 9.82 20.98 12.42 12.16 183

Administrative
support

 15.27 13.16 13.25 14.13 11.73 10.37 12.53 11.54 12.37 47
Blue-collar occupations:

Precision
production,
craft, and
repair

 19.94 17.69 15.89 20.72 -- 14.93 15.23 15.18 17.06 39

Machine
operators,
assemblers,
and inspectors

 14.52 14.44 11.99 13.66 -- 8.6 10.97 8.03 14.38 81

Transportation
and material
moving

 16.38 15.53 12.8 14.48 11.87 9.13 10.77 10.75 13.96 79

Handlers,
equipment
cleaners,
helpers, and
laborers

 9.57 10.92 10.23 13.53 8.92 8.89 10.89 8.67 12.44 56

Service occupations

 10.15 9.83 11.72 19.16 10.34 6.49 10.34 8.26 14.41 195

Footnotes:
(1) The dispersion percent shows the percentage difference between average earnings in the highest paying and lowest paying industry.

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data were reported or that data did not meet publication criteria.