20 Best Metro Areas for Health Services Management Pay

In a prior commentary, we examined Health Services Management Pay in the Top 20 Metro Areas.  While the biggest U.S. metropolitan areas are usually the home to the largest number of health services managerial jobs, it is often times the smaller metro areas where better average compensation awaits.  Secondary and tertiary labor markets offer fewer employment opportunities, but the qualified labor pool is smaller too.  Consequently, employers in smaller metro markets sometimes pay more to attract and retain talent than do their big metro area counterparts.  May 2019 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reveals that only three of the largest metro areas in the country were among the 20 best metro areas for health services management pay:

 

	Metropolitan Area		# Employed	Annual Mean Wages
1	Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA		420	$163,280
2	Vallejo-Fairfield, CA		450	$159,190
3	Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT		1,200	$154,570
4	Salinas, CA		280	$154,440
5	Hanford-Corcoran, CA		120	$145,340
6	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA		2,030	$144,530
7	New York-Newark-Jersey City (#)		28,490	$144,370
8	Janesville-Beloit, WI		90	$143,940
9	San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward (#)		5,560	$142,760
10	Binghamton, NY		190	$141,450
11	Boston-Cambridge-Nashua (#)		12,370	$139,240
12	Albuquerque, NM		880	$139,060
13	Parkersburg-Vienna, WV		100	$139,050
14	Corvallis, OR		120	$138,530
15	Danbury, CT		290	$138,100
17	Urban Honolulu, HI		1,280	$137,930
16	Cape Girardeau, MO-IL		140	$136,560
17	E. Sierra-Mother Lode CA non-metro		140	$135,720
18	Rochester, NY		1,040	$134,060
19	Santa Rosa, CA		450	$133,830
20	Durham-Chapel Hill, NC		1,160	$132,560
	National		394,910	$115,160

(#) a top 20 U.S metro population area

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OES. Data extracted on October 26, 2020