10 U.S. metros where high earners have seen the most wage growth

Percent gain: 27.87%

2019 annual salary: $541,438

2021 annual salary: $692,341

A few factors may be contributing to this part of the workforce’s wage gains.

The U.S. brings in top talent from around the world to fill positions in fields like tech. But the pandemic halted or slowed many of these activities, “So the talent shortage we are seeing at the high end of the spectrum is also because of low international immigration,” says Buber. There aren’t as many people around to fill those coveted positions.

As a result, companies are competing for a smaller base of local talent and responding by offering them better packages. While this can include a higher salary, says Buber, often this includes hiring bonuses, which can get reflected in the ADP data. This could be the case in tech hubs like San Francisco and Seattle.

Many of these positions can also be done remotely. As a result, throughout the pandemic, people in the 95^th percentile may have moved to cheaper cities, suburbs or states to get the most of their salaries.

“Their departures likely thinned the middle of the salary distribution,” says Issi Romem, a fellow at the ADP Research Institute and co-author of the report, “shifting some high earners down the percentile chain and giving the 95^th percentile spot to an even higher earner.” This could be the case in historically expensive cities like San Francisco.

Conversely, it’s possible those people moving out of expensive metros and into less expensive ones shifted the wage scales in the latter. While it seems like wages have hiked in the latter, in fact, there are simply more people making higher salaries there as a result of migration. This could be the case in some of the Californian suburbs highlighted above, says Buber.

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