WAGES AND INCOME
IN DUBUQUE
With Dubuque's cost of living data in mind, what are households in our community earning? Do all jobs pay enough for families to meet the ALICE Household Survival Budget?
WAGES BY JOB AND INDUSTRY
Using estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the chart below shows all jobs listed for Dubuque County with at least 200 people employed in that position.
For each job, the chart gives the estimated income percentiles for how workers in that job are generally paid. These percentiles show a range of what individuals in Dubuque may expect to receive as an hourly wage for a specific job.
The reference line shows the hourly wage needed for the ALICE Survival Budget for one adult and one child. Please note that data was not available for elementary school teachers (except special education), teaching assistants (except postsecondary), mechanical engineers, and customer service representatives.
One of the leading questions from the Data Walk was regarding the salary of teachers in Dubuque. The chart above only shows "Substitute Teachers, Short-Term," as that was the only category of teacher with available hourly income data and a listed total county employment of at least 200. To help provide more information, below is a chart showing the annual income by percentile for teacher categories as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, regardless of total employment.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics provides data for 57 occupations with at least 200 people employed in those positions in Dubuque County.
The 19 occupations with the lowest median incomes are represented by the leftmost two bars (“Lowest Third”), the 19 occupations with the highest median incomes are represented by the rightmost two bars (“Highest Third”), and the remaining 19 occupations are shown in the middle two bars (“Middle Third”).
Facing Barriers as an Immigrant
As told by
Catherine Caitlin
Tri-State VIATS
HOUSEHOLD INCOME
Exact data for how many households fall under each of the Survival Budget thresholds is unavailable.
However, assuming that within each of these income ranges the households are distributed relatively evenly, we can estimate that the following percentages of households do not have the annual income to meet the Survival Budget threshold:
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One Adult ($24,540) - Approximately 17.8% of Households
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One Adult, One Child ($41,491) - Approximately 32.1% of Households
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Two Adults, Two Children ($73,842) - Approximately 57.5% of Households
Recent data for number of households within a given income range was not available by race and ethnicity. This chart instead shows median income, although 2019 data was not available for the category "Some Other Race"
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ABOUT THE DATA
All data from the charts comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the American Community Survey, which is produced by the U.S. Census Bureau.
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Using estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the charts for wages by job position show all jobs in Dubuque County with at least 200 people employed in that position.
The charts show the estimated income percentiles and estimated median income for how workers in that job are generally paid. These percentiles show a range of what individuals in Dubuque may expect to receive as an hourly wage for a specific job.
Please note that wage data was not available for elementary school teachers (except special education), teaching assistants (except postsecondary), mechanical engineers, and customer service representatives.
The most recently available wage data is from May of 2020, and household income data is from 2019. This may mean that there might be some mismatches between the wage/income data and the ALICE data, which generally reflects 2020/2021 data. Evidence suggests that wages have been increasing in the second half of 2021.
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Because the number of households was provided in terms of income ranges, it was not possible to identify the exact number of households below each ALICE Household Survival Budget threshold. The percentage of households was estimated by assuming that the households were evenly distributed within each income range.
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Recent data for number of households within a given income range was not available by race and ethnicity. The chart above instead shows median income, although 2019 data was not available for the category "Some Other Race"