Press release: “Workers in the Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia metropolitan area earned an average of $23.78 per hour in April 2007, according to new survey results from the National Compensation Survey (NCS) released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor. Regional Commissioner Sheila Watkins noted that wage data were reported for workers in a wide range of occupational groups, including average hourly earnings of $43.49 for management occupations and $32.82 for business and financial operations occupations. Another occupational group, office and administrative support, had a mean hourly wage rate of $16.96. The NCS data available for the Washington area include earnings for 21 major occupational groups with additional detail for selected occupations within those groups.”