Corrections and Clarifications: An earlier version of this story misrepresented salary figures for bartenders and pharmacists. It has since been corrected.
Lawyers still earn about five times as much as bartenders and fast food workers.
But over the past decade, these low paying jobs in hospitality have a little bit filled the gapA new analysis show.
airline pilotsdancers and software developers reaped the largest average salary increases, by percentage, from 2010 to May 2021, according to an analysis of Department of Labor data by Clarify Capital, a small business lender, provided exclusively to USA TODAY .
Dentists, actors and architects recorded the smallest gains.
Overall, the average annual salary in the United States increased by 31.2% over the decade, according to the study, but after adjusting for inflation, the average salary fell by 4, 5%. Only about a fifth of occupations have kept pace consumer price increases during the 10 year period.
“The labor market has not kept up with inflation,” says Nishank Khanna, CMO of Clarify Capital.
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Even over the past two years as the country emerged from the pandemic, average wages grew by more than 5% per year, but until recently they were lagging inflation, which peaked at 9.1% last June.
The five occupations with the strongest wage increases over the decade:
Airline pilot
Average salary increase: 71.9%
Inflation-adjusted average rise: 25.1%
Average salary: $198,190
There was a shortage of pilots after many retired or took buyouts early in the pandemic, Khanna says.
Dancer
Average salary increase: 48%
Inflation-adjusted average rise: 7.7%
Average salary: $50,939
software developer
Average salary increase: 46.4%
Average salary: $120,990
Average inflation-adjusted increase: 6.5%
Demand for software developers has exploded along with sales of digital products and services, especially since COVID.
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Farmer
Average salary increase: 44.3%
Average inflation-adjusted increase: 5%
Average salary: $31,795
Farms are struggling with labor shortages due to stricter immigration laws and declining interest in the field.
Bartender
Average salary increase: 42.4%
Inflation-adjusted average rise: 3.6%
Average salary: $30,340
Restaurants and bars have struggled to hire bartenders, servers and other workers as many left the industry during the health crisis. Fast food workers and servers closely follow bartenders, with average wage gains of 40% and 39.5%, respectively. Khanna also partly credits the Fight for $15 campaign, a group of fast food workers and union officials who staged walkouts for higher pay.
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Professions with the most modest salary increases:
Dentist
Average salary increase: 5.3%
Inflation-adjusted average change: -23.4%
Average salary: $167,160
This is surprising since typical dental school costs have risen from $131,736 to $210,625 over the decade, Khanna says.
Actor
Average salary increase: 10.1%
Inflation-adjusted average change: -19.9%
Average salary: $65,125
Architect
Average salary increase: 13.8%
Inflation-adjusted average change: -17.1%
Average salary: $89,400
The estate was rocked by the housing crisis of the mid-2000s and the Great Recession of 2007-09, as well as the early days of the pandemic.
Attorney
Average salary increase: 14.4%
Inflation-adjusted average change: -16.8%
Average salary: $148,030
An oversupply of law graduates in many fields has left it hard to find jobs while established lawyers have come under pressure to cap their fees, Khanna says. Advances in technology have also made some legal services more efficient and less expensive, he says.
Pharmacist
Average salary increase: 14.9%
Inflation-adjusted average change: -16.4%
Average salary: $125,690
One possible explanation is the spread of technology for filling prescriptions, reducing the need for pharmacists to spend time on routine tasks, such as counting pills and labeling bottles, Khanna says. This has resulted in fewer job opportunities and less upward pressure on wages, he says.