04/24/09

The Idaho Department of Labor released statistics showing the wage growth in rural Idaho counties outpaced urban counties in 2007.

Wages in rural Idaho in 2007 were up nearly 3.7 percent from 2006 while urban wages saw less than a 3 percent rise. Statewide the average annual income of just over $33,200 that year was a 3.2 percent jump.

Butte County residents saw the highest wages at an average of $70,300 a year, which is also home to the Idaho National Laboratory.

Ada County was second in the state with the average wage of a just under $40,000 a year, up 2.6 percent; and Twin Falls County's annual wage increased by 3.5 percent to $27,000 plus a year.

Rural Idaho had small but larger annual wage increases than urban Idaho in both the recession year of 2001 and the fallout of 2002.