New Mexico paychecks beat prices by 2.9% over the past year, the second-most of any state
By The Liberty Tribune Data Desk ·
A caution on this figure: state pay figures swing widely from month to month. For New Mexico, the same measure was plus 5.0% in August and plus 5.1% in July. Comparing average pay over the latest 11 months with data against the same months a year earlier, pay ran 3.4% ahead of prices. October 2025 is left out because BLS has no price figure for it.
Average hourly earnings for private-sector workers in New Mexico were $31.43 in September 2026, compared with $29.54 a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Pay rose 6.4% over the 12 months, while consumer prices in the West rose 3.4%.
After inflation, an hour of work in New Mexico buys 2.9% more than it did a year ago, the second-largest real gain of any state.
Keeping pace with West prices required $30.55 an hour; pay came in $0.88 above that, or $35.09 over a 40-hour week.
Nationwide, average hourly earnings rose 2.9% to $37.69 while prices rose 3.7%. Pay trailed regional prices in 38 of 50 states.
Elsewhere in the Mountain division, pay after inflation: Wyoming +0.8%, Arizona minus 0.2%, Utah minus 0.2%, Nevada minus 0.4%, Idaho minus 0.7%, Colorado minus 1.4%, Montana minus 2.0%.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Pay: Current Employment Statistics (State and Area), average hourly earnings of all employees, total private, not seasonally adjusted, series SMU35000000500000003; CEU0500000003 for the nation. Prices: Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, all items, not seasonally adjusted, West region series CUUR0400SA0; CUUR0000SA0 for the nation. Both compared with the same month a year earlier; pay after inflation is (1 + pay growth) / (1 + price growth) - 1. BLS publishes no statewide price index, so each state is measured against its Census region. State figures are preliminary. Ranks exclude the District of Columbia. Computed by The Liberty Tribune from the published series.
Data retrieved from the BLS public API on October 30, 2026. BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.
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More from September 2026
- Paychecks trailed prices in 38 of 50 states over the past year
- Wisconsin paychecks fell 4.1% behind prices over the past year, the widest gap of any state
- Minnesota paychecks fell 4.1% behind prices over the past year, the second-widest gap of any state
- North Dakota paychecks fell 4.0% behind prices over the past year, the third-widest gap of any state
- Hawaii paychecks beat prices by 5.5% over the past year, the most of any state
- Texas paychecks beat prices by 2.3% over the past year, the third-most of any state
- Government payrolls shrank in 33 of 50 states over the past year
- Michigan government payrolls grew 2.4% in a year, outpacing private employers by the widest margin of any state