Wage Exercises

1. Find the national mean hourly wage information for an automobile repair mechanic. Now find the mean hourly wage inColorado and the Denver, CO area.

  • On the front BLS page, see the heading near the top left, Wages, Earnings, and Benefits. Look at the Wages by Area and Occupation section of This page breaks things down by National, Regional, State, and Metropolitan data. Looking under national, select For over 800 occupations, and you will see a list of major occupational groups. Select group 49, Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Occupations. This produces a list where you'll see that automotive service technicians and mechanics earn a mean hourly wage of $17.34 nationally.
  • Go back to the Wages by Area and Occupation screen and select state data. Choose your state and then industry area. The mean hourly wage in Colorado is $18.08.
  • Now go back to the Wages by Area and Occupation screen and choose metropolitan data. Choose the selection titled For 375 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and 34 metropolitan divisions. Here, you can select the metro area, Denver-Aurora, CO, and you will receive a similar industry chart. Select code 49 again and you will find that in Denver, the mean hourly wage for this auto mechanics is $18.56.

2. Use the National Compensation Survey (NCS) to find similar information in a report listing.

  • As in the previous exercise, go under the Metropolitan Area Wage Data section, and select For pay-setting purposes, and then you'll choose a state. This data is from June 2006, and reveals that in the Denver-Boulder-Greeley area, automotive service technicians and mechanics have a mean hourly wage of $18.47 for full-time workers. At this time, no part-time data is listed for this career. Other careers provide this information. The benefit of this tool is that it distinguishes between civilian, private industry, and state and local government workers.

3. Use the National Compensation Survey to set a wage for a particular position.

This tool helps you go through levels of complexity in the job in help setting a wage and also provides report data. Look for data for Automotive Repair Mechanics.

  • Under National Wage Data section, select For pay-setting purposes, which allows you to set difficulty and complexity of the work.
  • Scan the wide variety of choices available to obtain wage data, but select Get detailed NCS wage statistics. You can create customized tables on the screen, which will allow you to set many parameters for the job under consideration.
  • Narrow things down by geographic area and then occupation, then a work level. Select Denver-Boulder-Greeley for your area.
  • Scan occupations or search on repair or mechanic and choose the most appropriate.
  • If you don't know the work level, click Get help choosing a Work Level, which will walk you through the various aspects of a job in terms of difficulty and complexity.
  • Next, click Get data, and you will received published and/or modeled estimates for occupation level with hourly wages listed.

4. What is the minimum wage? Is there a difference between the Federal minimum wage and that of states? What's the minimum wage in New Mexico? Arizona? Colorado?

  • Visit and look to the left menu, at Wages.
  • Minimum wage is listed as a subtopic. It explains that the federal is $5.85 per hour, and it provides a link to learn of states' minimum wages.
  • Click on Minimum Wage Laws in the States. Select the desired states from the map, leading to a chart with all state wages listed. Note that where state and federal wage amounts differ, the employee is entitled to the higher of the two.
    New Mexico is $5.15. Arizona is $6.75. Colorado is $6.85.

Work Hours/Leave Benefits Exercise

My car repair shop has 22 employees. Am I bound to observe the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)?

  • There are several ways to find this information on the Labor site < One would be to scan the front page of the site for FMLA information.
  • Another is to look under the left Find It! section and click Topics. Scanning the page, one would see the section for Leave Benefits. Choosing the latter option, you can find a fact sheet about FMLA.
  • The answer is that with only 22 employees, your company would not be bound to observe FMLA. This law applies to all public agencies, all public and private elementary and secondary schools, and companies with 50 or more employees.

Job/Vocation Exercise

Many librarians are familiar with the Occupational Outlook Handbook, but may not realize the value of the other BLS sources related to jobs and occupations. Many people prepare for a job in a field, but aren't sure about trends in the industry, nor which specific job they would like. Using the Career Guide to Industries is a great way to get this information.

Our car repair shop owner is very pleased with the success of his business. However, he is distressed over his recently hired brother-in-law’s complete lack of aptitude with automobiles. He thinks his brother-in-law might be better suited for food service and wants to get more information about the variety of occupations in the food service industry.

  • To do this, visit the Career Guide ( and scan the right column for the most likely match. Leisure and Hospitality includes arts, entertainment, and recreation, food services and drinking places, and hotels and other accommodations.
  • Once selecting leisure and hospitality, select food services and drinking places.
  • Next, select Occupations in the Industry. You will see a chart which features the various occupations in that field, including management, sales, service, administrative, and other types of jobs.

Another option is to enter a keyword in the Search the Career Guide box at the top right. Enter "food services" and you'll return a list that links to Career Guide entries for various o