Paywizard.org

Some interesting earnings data is being collected by the the Labour and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School - through their Paywizard.org website. The website allows US individuls to compare their earnings against what other people get for the same job in the same state with a free 'Salary Calculator'. In return, individuals are requested to keep the Calculator updated, by sharing their salary and job information. For a salary check on a 'postsecondary economics teacher' in New York, the following data is provided:

Total number of employed people within this occupation within this state 690.00

Mean hourly wage in Dollars: *
Annual mean wage in Dollars: 86130.00
Lowest hourly wage in occupation, 10% percentile: *
Highest hourly wage in occupation, 90% percentile: *
Lowest annual wage in occupation, 10% percentile: 46250.00
Highest annual wage in occupation, 90% percentile: 133520.00

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2007) State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.

* = indicates that a wage estimate is not available
** = indicates that an employment estimate is not available
# = indicates a wage greater than $70.00 per hour or $145,600 per year

In addition, Paywizard.org is connected to the WageIndicator Network, a 75 country research program designed to enhance labor market transparency and to aid data-collection for social science research. For anyone interested in earnings data, this is an interesting project. There is no partner in Ireland yet, but in the UK data is being collected by the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Incomes Data Services (IDS) and the Mayor of London.