California workers ended 2024 with the nation’s fifth-largest pay raises, despite sluggish job creation.

My trusty spreadsheet looked at a fourth-quarter tally of workers and wages by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that’s taken from a review of employers’ unemployment insurance filings for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. These stats are considered a more reliable snapshot of employment patterns compared with the monthly surveys released shortly after a month ends.

However, these quarterly stats take time to prepare. Thus, we’re talking about job market conditions at the end of last year as we approach the middle of 2025.

Caveat noted, the quarterly statistics show that California bosses were relatively generous with their workers at year-end, upping average weekly wages by 6.5% over 12 months. That topped the nation’s 5% raises, and was topped by only four other states. No. 1 was Wyoming with 12.4% raises, then Washington state at 8.7%, Idaho at 8.3%, and Oregon at 6.6%.

The outsized pay hikes might help explain the “who can afford this?” debate. Those who have generous bosses.

Still, anxieties swirl around a state economy where consumers battle the long-running, lofty cost of living — plus more recently, pesky high inflation. And large pay hikes only ferment further inflation.

Nationally, the stingiest bosses were in Louisiana, who gave only 2.8% raises late last year. Next was Iowa at 3.2%, New Hampshire at 3.3%, New Jersey at 3.4%, and West Virginia at 3.4%.

And California’s major economic rivals? Texas pay hikes ranked No. 26 at 4.3%. Florida was No. 13 at 5.7%.