Salary by zip code

February 26, 2020 11:55 AM

I work for a giant company who has 4 salary ranges for each job title, based on your location. This year, they downgraded the zip code I work in from second to third and thus my range went down $10k. My salary did not go down, but the range factors into my yearly raises, so this will hurt me in long run.

I work in downtown Minneapolis and some zip codes that are in the same city are still in the second level. Zip codes that are adjacent (Numerically and geographically) to ours are still In the second level. I am trying to find data that supports or refutes this logic. Where can I find salary data by work location and not residential location on a ZIP code level?

posted by soelo to Work & Money (7 answers total)

Is their logic that they want to account for the cost of living in different locations? If so, then salary by work location (as opposed to home location) wouldn't make any difference. The underlying cause of the downgrade would be something like the relative cost of housing in your zip code versus adjacent ones.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 12:04 PM on February 26, 2020

I dont work in HR but ive never seen this done at a zip-code level even where organizations/companies have geographically disparate pay scales. Are you saying if you moved to a different twin cities zip code your raises would be larger?
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 12:06 PM on February 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has data online at the MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) level which is not as fine-grained as zip code. The twin cities would be a single MSA. They do it that way because using zip codes for this isn't really sound.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 12:38 PM on February 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

If you plan to protest this method of determining salary ranges, you might also point out that they could have a discriminatory effect if minorities are much more likely to live in the downgraded zip codes.
posted by mbrubeck at 1:21 PM on February 26, 2020 [21 favorites]

It is more than just theoretical - it is likely that your proximity to a cluster of Section 8 housing is harming your future wages, as mbrubeck suggested:

Why Are the Twin Cities So Segregated? A Feb, 2015 report by the institue on economic opporunity [pdf]
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 2:09 PM on February 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Couple comments deleted. Let's not get sidetracked onto other commentary on the situation -- please stick to help finding the data OP asks for: salary data by work location and not residential location on a ZIP code level. Thanks.]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 2:37 PM on February 26, 2020

Response by poster: Are you saying if you moved to a different twin cities zip code your raises would be larger?
Yes if my work location moved to another zip code then they might be higher because some moved down and others did not. I find it as ridiculous as you all do!
posted by soelo at 4:23 PM on February 26, 2020