The following table, courtesy of Washington State Employment Security Department, shows the average hourly wage of full-time employees in Pierce County compared to the rest of Washington state broken into 10% intervals.   In other words, in 2008, the bottom 10 percent of full-time employees in the county made $8.36 an hour on average, while the top 10 percent made $69.32 an hour on average.  The median hourly wage earned in Pierce County in 2007 was $18.95 per hour.  As you can see from the chart, Pierce County lagged behind Washington State as a whole when it comes to hourly wages.

The table also shows the average hourly wage needed in 2008 to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Tacoma/Pierce County.  In 2008, 40% of the jobs (109,517) in Pierce County paid less than the two-bedroom “housing wage” of $16.25 per hour, or what a person would need to earn to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment.