Sales Workers Are Getting the Biggest Pay Raises Across the Economy

The business of business is sales. As annoying as that sometimes may be. JL

Shobhana Chandra reports in Bloomberg:

As a group, sales workers fared better than bankers, tech professionals, and even their managers. In terms of growth rates for wages and salaries, no other occupation came close:
It paid to be in sales last quarter.
Americans in the business of selling goods and services are seeing faster wage growth than everyone else in the U.S. And those getting paid by commission are doing even better.
This good news for workers in sales comes in the Employment Cost Index data released by the Labor Department on Thursday.
Wages and salaries, which make up about 70 percent of total compensation costs, jumped 6.2 percent for sales people in the year ended March. That's the biggest increase since records began 2001, and stands out against the 2.8 percent gain across all jobs, which itself is a sign that pay is starting to creep up as the labor market tightens.

As a group, sales workers fared better than bankers, tech professionals, and even their managers. In terms of growth rates for wages and salaries, no other occupation came close: Professional and business services saw a 4 percent advance from a year ago, while manufacturing and financial activities posted more modest gains in the 2 percent-plus range, according to the ECI figures.

Of course, a large part of the surge in compensation came from the commissions that sales people made, compared with growth in regular salary. Take away commissions and bonuses, and the wage index for sales-related occupations grew 2.2 percent, following a 2 percent increase in the year through December.
Still, it was a great time to be selling stuff, and getting paid well for it, even when the economy barely grew in the first quarter.
Some economists say that's because companies sense growth will pick up once the U.S. moves beyond the short-term restraints of bad winter weather and delays at West Coast ports.
"Employers are beefing up sales forces and paying them more,"said Bricklin Dwyer, an economist at BNP Paribas SA in New York. "Businesses expect stronger demand ahead and are willing to pay up in anticipation."
Including benefits like healthcare, total compensation in the sales occupation jumped 4.9 percent from a year ago,  the most in the history of the series and more than twice the long-term average of 2.3 percent.
Bidding up for workers who can quickly sell off inventory or successfully pitch services and wares underscores the optimism corporate America has about demand