Paycheck | featured news

Many Americans received their first paycheck of 2013 today. That sound you hear is the collective "What the . .. " they have emitted upon looking at their pay stub.

When cost of living is factored in, most of the places that boast the highest effective pay turn out to be in the less celebrated and less expensive middle part of the country... In first place is Houston, where the average annual wage in 2011 was $59,838, eighth highest in the nation. What puts Houston at the top of the list is the region’s relatively low cost of living, which includes such things as consumer prices and services, utilities and transportation costs and, most importantly, housing prices...

According to a study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology in fall 2010 titled, “When It Comes to Pay, Do the Thin Win? The Effect of Weight on Pay for Men and Women,” a woman’s weight can have a significant impact on her earnings.

Government statisticians have put a number on Californians' paycheck pain last year: about $40 billion.

The federal Bureau of Economic Analysis said personal incomes of Golden State workers fell by that amount in 2009 compared with the previous year – the state's first year-to-year decline since World War II.