Northwest Iowa — According to a new study, income growth in northwest Iowa is among the fastest in the state.
According to SmartAsset, median base pay for workers in the United States climbed by 1.6 percent in June, which was the strongest growth in the wage statistic so far in 2018. SmartAsset analyzed Census data over a five-year period to determine where incomes were growing the fastest, and three of the four northwest Iowa counties that make up our main coverage area ranked among the top places in Iowa. This metric is part of SmartAsset’s overarching study on the most “Paycheck Friendly” places.
The study shows that the top county in Iowa for income growth is Delaware County (between Waterloo and Dubuque on Highway 20), where it says income growth was 3.8 percent. The next two counties were here in northwest Iowa, where the study says Lyon County income growth was at 3.7 percent, with Sioux County next at 3.3 percent. Down the list just a little bit is O’Brien County at number 8. Income growth in O’Brien County was at 2.7 percent, according to the survey.
SmartAsset says they assumed a $50,000 annual income in every county, then indexed the paycheck amount for each county to reflect the counties with the lowest withholding burden. Next, they created a purchasing power index for each county. Finally, they calculated the weighted average of the indices to yield an overall paycheck friendliness score.
Both Lyon and Sioux counties also rated high in this index with Sioux County having the second-most paycheck-friendly score, behind only Dallas County. Lyon County was third.
