The average pay in the San Francisco metropolitan area was 19% above the national average in 2006, the highest among 78 areas studied in the National Compensation Survey, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The Brownsville TX area was the lowest with workers earning an average of 78 cents for every dollar earned by workers nationwide.

The survey uses a pay relative to rank the areas — the calculation controls for differences among occupational composition, establishment and occupational characteristics as well as the fact data is collected at different times of year.