Boston area fifth highest in pay

Boston area pay ranked fifth highest among all the metropolitan areas in the country, according to the US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Average pay in the Boston area was 12 percent higher than the national average in 2007, according to the report of pay relatives among 77 metropolitan areas. Pay relative calculations allow comparisons across a large and diverse economy, the bureau said.

Boston area installation, maintenance, and repair jobs were the highest paid in the United States, with workers in those fields earning 15 percent more than the national average. Each of the four New England metropolitan areas ranked in the top 10 with Hartford, fourth; Boston fifth; Springfield tied for sixth with Seattle; and Providence in a three-way tie for eighth with Minneapolis and San Diego.

San Francisco ranked first and Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas, came in last.

Since the first pay relative calculations in 2002, Boston area pay relative has been consistently higher than the national average.
(By Elizabeth Campbell, Globe correspondent)