+1 570 955 3538Weekly Wages by Industry in Six NEPA and Lehigh Valley Counties
Private employers in Lehigh County paid an average of $1,355 a week in the second quarter of 2025. In Carbon County the average was $838. That is 1.62 times as much. This page compares pay across six counties and six industries, so you can price jobs, set a hiring budget, or judge what local customers can spend.
Hiring in this market? Run the hire vs. agency calculator, which uses the same wage file.
Pay across all private sectors
| County | Weekly wage | Yearly (×52) | Change vs. 2024 Q2 | Private jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lehigh | $1,355 | $70,460 | +2.1% | 188,635 |
| Northampton | $1,160 | $60,320 | +4.7% | 109,586 |
| Luzerne | $1,068 | $55,536 | +4.2% | 129,179 |
| Lackawanna | $1,014 | $52,728 | +3.3% | 88,949 |
| Monroe | $972 | $50,544 | +1.8% | 48,928 |
| Carbon | $838 | $43,576 | +1.8% | 13,993 |
Weekly wage is total wages divided by average employment and 13 weeks, as the BLS defines it. Treat it as a market average and set your own offers.
Pay in six industries
| County | All private sectors | Construction | Manufacturing | Retail trade | Health care | Accommodation and food services | Professional |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lehigh | $1,355 | $1,575 | $1,586 | $697 | $1,514 | $482 | $1,854 |
| Northampton | $1,160 | $1,514 | $1,634 | $725 | $1,165 | $568 | $1,625 |
| Luzerne | $1,068 | $1,341 | $1,270 | $666 | $1,170 | $437 | $1,631 |
| Lackawanna | $1,014 | $1,466 | $1,291 | $666 | $1,089 | $422 | $1,393 |
| Monroe | $972 | $1,142 | $1,766 | $639 | $1,174 | $541 | $1,337 |
| Carbon | $838 | $1,130 | $1,150 | $598 | $988 | $401 | $1,109 |
"No data" means the BLS withheld the number to protect an employer's privacy or the county has no firms in that sector at this level.
What we notice
Retail pay spans $598 to $725 a week. A retail worker in Northampton County earns $127 more a week than one in Carbon County. That gap sets how much room local shoppers have.
Health care is the largest sector in 5 of the six counties. It pays $988 a week in Carbon County and $1,514 in Lehigh County. The exception is Monroe County, where the largest sector is accommodation and food services.
Wage growth is uneven. Year-over-year change in the average wage ranges from +1.8% to +4.7%. A county where wages rise faster than prices gains spending power. We have not adjusted for prices here.
Four counties are missing
Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming are not in this edition. We pulled the BLS file for six counties first. See Lackawanna County in detail or the ten-county density study for the full set of counties.
Where the numbers come from
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), 2025 Q2, private ownership. Open data: data.bls.gov/cew. Pulled 2026-10-06.
FAQ
Which NEPA county pays the most?
Of the six counties here, Lehigh County, at $1,355 a week for private-sector work in 2025 Q2.
Is weekly wage the same as salary?
No. It is an average over all employees, part-time and full-time, including those who worked a partial quarter. A full-time salary can sit above that average.
Why is Carbon County's average so low?
One reason is mix. Accommodation and food jobs are 15.6% of Carbon County's private jobs, against 9.7% in Lackawanna County, and that sector pays under $569 a week everywhere in this file. Mix is not the whole story, and this file cannot show the rest.
Can I use this to set pay in my business?
Use it as one reference. Compare it with job ads, your own offers and what applicants say.
