Are You Getting Paid What You’re Worth?

Orson Welles is probably right: Dallas is Money. But His Corpulence forgot to tell us how much. We’re always hearing about what a great place this is for the Bob Folsoms and Trammell Crows busily buying and selling North Dallas, but what about the guy in the ’73 Olds sitting next to you at Keller’s? How does the wealth of Dallas affect the average wage earner? We decided to find out.

It was not an easy task. In a market economy people believe that they’re supposed to be paid what they’re worth. And while we love to show off the symbols of our affluence, we’re hesitant to say exactly how the market values our services. One suspects that the typical 45-year-old marketing manager would be more comfortable discussing his mistress with his mother-in-law than talking about the size of his paycheck. Still, information about wages, like stories about the President’s sex life, do seep out. The following tables give a rough idea about what some Dal-lasites earn.

The tables should not be taken too literally. Although we’ve tried to make them as accurate as possible, they still represent a combination of economic analysis and gossip. Much salary information is public, and can be obtained from the state and federal governments. Other information is strictly private, and must be gathered from interviews. Also, many benefits – insurance, expense allowances, etc. – are not included in the figures.

In 1978, the average Dallas worker brought home $244.85 a week. This compares with a statewide average of $226.50, and a Harris County (Houston) average of $271.61. We have also done fairly well in keeping up with (and contributing to) the rate of inflation. In 1978, for example, the average unskilled plant worker’s salary went up by 11.6 percent. This compares with 9.2 percent for a worker in Dayton.

To a large extent, the composition of the Dallas labor force helps explain why we are doing as well as we are. A good many of us (about 55 percent) work in the service and trade industries. Often these jobs are in wholesaling and retailing, or finance and insurance, where the level of responsibility commands a higher salary. Manufacturing in the area centers on aviation and electronics. Both are skill-intensive industries demanding a large force of engineers and highly trained workers.

In Dallas, as in much of the rest of the country, a college degree is no longer a prerequisite for getting ahead. As one personnel director put it, “I am continually impressed by the gains made by blue-collar workers relative to white-collar workers. To a large extent, especially when you look at the skilled trades, the gaps that once existed are no longer there.” A Dallas truck driver, for example, can expect to earn about $15,000, over $1000 more than a nurse or school teacher, and about $1000 less than a starting college professor.

Dallas workers are demanding more and more of their income in the form of non-monetary perquisites. If you should chance upon a stockbroker discussing the firm’s newest “bennies” with a colleague, don’t worry. He’s not talking about the amphetamines handed out by the company nurse; he’s probably discussing dental insurance, the company car, or the chance to take his wife to the Islands for a “sales meeting.” Such benefits are more and more popular these days as inflation pushes everyone into a higher tax bracket. Many of these extras are nontaxable, so it often pays the bright young executive to take $1000 worth of bridgework instead of cash.

The future continues to look good. The Texas Employment Commission predicts that by 1985 there will be a slight increase in the percentage of people employed in the service and manufacturing industries, and a slight decrease in transportation and trades. Barring disaster, the present wage level should continue into the Eighties, with certain technical workers, such as medical technicians and maintenance mechanics, doing especially well.

In the final analysis, it’s absurd to pretend that your salary represents your value to society. How, for example, would you explain to a visiting Martian why a seven-foot simpleton who can bounce a basketball makes 100 times the salary of a college-educated intensive care nurse who routinely restores life to the dead? Explaining it with the laws of supply and demand may sound crass (unless you’re the basketball player), but that’s the way it works.

In a market economy, prices (and wages are just another price) are determined by the value of a commodity in its exchange, not its use. If you’re buying basketball players, there are only a few, so the exchange is expensive. If you’re staffing an ICU, there are relatively more nurses, so the exchange is not so dear. Of course, the value of a worker’s services is partly reflected in the exchange price. Chariot mechanics don’t earn much even though they’re very scarce. Prices don’t reflect moral or ethical standards; they serve to allocate scarce resources efficiently. And they do this especially well.

Speculating about who makes what and why may be fun, but in the end the answers probably don’t reveal much. There is much more to even the crummiest job than the paycheck. Usually, these other elements make all the difference. The table will give you some idea about wages, but whether or not you’re better off in your job than your neighbor is a question best resolved by the two of you.