Trends: Employer size drives wages

Tri-Citians are as likely to work for a small, medium, large or very large company as their Washington counterparts.

That’s the takeaway from this week’s Benton-Franklin Trends report, a statistical analysis produced by The Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis at Eastern Washington University.

Trends offers hundreds of free reports measuring the economic, civic and cultural health of the Tri-Cities. Learn more at bit.ly/BFTrends.

In Benton and Franklin counties, 33 percent of the private sector work force was employed by a company with up to 49 employees, 15 percent by companies with 50 to 249 employees, 5 percent by companies with 250 to 499 employees and almost half, 47 percent, by companies with 500 or more employees in 2013.

The figures were almost identical for all of Washington. The numbers based on a U.S. Census Bureau work force survey.

While small business is celebrated as the backbone of the American economy, larger employers have a hiring advantage because they typically offer better salaries and benefits, and have a greater ability to manage increasingly difficult regulations, such as the Affordable Care Act.

In 2012, the Census Bureau reported that pay differs significantly by employer size. Very small businesses with 20 or fewer employees paid annual salaries of about $37,000, while small firms paid a little more than $40,000, medium sized companies paid about $45,000 and large companies paid nearly $53,000.

This story was originally published February 14, 2016 at 4:28 PM with the headline "Trends: Employer size drives wages."