Did your hourly pay go up last year? Data shows median Idaho wages rose 5%
Hourly workers in Idaho got a wage boost in 2024, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The state’s average wage for all occupations was $28.10 per hour, which marks an increase of 5.1%, or $1.35 per hour, over 2023.
The median wage, or the midpoint between the lowest and highest earners, was $22.34 per hour, up 5%, or $1.07, from 2023. High-wage earners lift average wages above the medians.
The highest paid workers were chief executives at an average hourly wage of $103.74 per hour, followed by computer and information systems managers, financial managers, human resources managers, sales managers and marketing managers.
Southwestern Idaho had the highest average hourly wage for 2024 among the state’s labor market regions at $29.40 per hour, according to a news release from the Idaho Department of Labor. It also had the highest median wage at $22.88 per hour.
The Pocatello metropolitan statistical area had the largest increase with both average and median hourly wages growing by over $2 per hour.
Employment numbers are also going up across the state, according to the release.
In 2024, the state’s reported employment number was 844,910, an increase of about 22,000, or 2.7%, over the prior year. Both the Boise and Idaho Falls metropolitan statistical areas exceeded the rest of the state’s employment growth at 3.8% and 3.6%, respectively. Boise added 14,090 jobs and Idaho Falls added 2,820.
The only labor market region that saw employment fall was north central Idaho, which lost 70 jobs, or 0.2%, over the year.
How the gains stack up
Hourly wage growth in 2024 was still about half of what it was in 2023, a year when Idaho workers made big gains.
While the median hourly wage in the state rose 5% in 2024, it increased 10.4% in 2023. The Boise area had the biggest jump that year: $2.62.
Idaho ranks No. 3 in the nation for wage growth, according to a Nov. 5 news release from ADP Pay Insights.
But Idaho’s pay still remains below the nation’s, whose median hourly wage for all occupations in 2024 was $23.80 and whose average was $32.66, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Bank of America raises hourly wage
Bank of America announced in September that it would raise its U.S. minimum hourly wage to $25.
The bank, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the second-biggest bank in the nation after JPMorgan Chase, as measured by deposits and total assets. But for over a decade, it had no bank branches, or what it calls financial centers, in the Treasure Valley.
Now it has four financial centers in the area, including one in Nampa, two in Meridian and another across from Panera Bread at the Franklin Towne Plaza in Boise.
Bank of America said in a news release that it has about 300 employees in Boise. Not all of those workers are hourly, but of those that are, about 20% will receive a raise in line with the increase to $25 per hour. The minimum full-time starting salary at the bank’s U.S. branches is now over $50,000 a year.
