Prosperity taps the brakes

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New federal figures show, though the state easily retained its status as the richest state in the nation measured by average paychecks.

 

State residents made more than $56,000 on average last year, according to preliminary estimates by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, easily outdistancing New Jersey residents who made just below $51,000.

 

In the fourth quarter, however, total resident income dropped by 0.8 percent in the aggregate, adding up to $1.5 billion less than residents made in the third quarter ”“ a period in which income had increased by about that amount from the second quarter.

 

For all 2008, Connecticut”™s paycheck growth rate of 2.3 percent trailed every state in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region save Delaware, which managed a meager 1.8 percent bump in pay.

 

U.S. residents averaged a 3.9 percent boost in earnings to just under $40,000 in 2008. North Dakota residents registered the biggest hike in pay at 9.6 percent, followed by Alaska”™s 9 percent figure.

 

At the other end of the scale, Arizona citizens managed just 0.4 percent average growth in compensation, and Mississippi was the lone state to have a per capita income below $30,000.

 

As the first quarter of 2009 came to a close, compensation data from last year was still trickling in from various entities that study pay trends.

 

In a survey of 550 hedge funds published last month by Alpha magazine, average pay fell a reported 16 percent last year. Fairfield County is home to one of the largest concentrations of hedge funds in the world.

 

In a January survey of more than 500 U.S. companies, Stamford-based Towers Perrin found that most companies were avoiding “slash and burn” pay reductions, in the words of Ravin Jesuthasan, a senior compensation analyst there. At that point in time, 85 percent of companies surveyed said they were not considering across-the-board pay reductions, though the majority said they were reducing their budgets for future pay increases. A higher number were considering savings in their benefit program, with a quarter of companies surveyed saying they were considering such cuts or had already made them.

 

Slightly more than a quarter of the companies surveyed indicated they were addressing the problem of “underwater” stock options likely to expire before shares rise back up above the strike prices for options.

 

Towers Perrin found that senior executives are in line for the lowest pay increases this year, with union employees enjoying the largest increases.