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What a Difference Two Decades Makes: 2025 Update on South Carolina Manufacturing Wages

What a Difference Two Decades Makes: 2025 Update on South Carolina Manufacturing Wages

By Brandon Wilkerson, Labor Market Analytics Director

Introduction

In 2024, the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce published a blog post on the remarkable growth of the state’s manufacturing wages since the early years of the 21st century through 2023. With calendar year 2024 data now complete and available, this piece returns with an update that confirms the ongoing strength of manufacturing wages in South Carolina.

Historically, the textile industry was the major player in South Carolina’s manufacturing economy. Gradually, the state’s industrial base diversified with the addition of the automotive, tire, aircraft, and chemical industries, among others. This transformation is not limited to the type of product coming off the line: manufacturing wages are very competitive, keeping South Carolina ahead of many other states.

Overtaking States with a Legacy of Manufacturing

The Wall Street Journal, in a 2024 piece[1] on automakers’ growing interest in the American South, compared South Carolina’s manufacturing wages to those of Michigan over a 20-year interval. South Carolina’s manufacturing wages, in 2003, were 42% behind Michigan. As of 2024, however, South Carolina’s manufacturing wages were 1% ahead of Michigan. Inspired by this reporting and using the same Bureau of Labor Statistics sources as the Wall Street Journal, LMI tracked down the manufacturing wages for New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania – each of those, like Michigan, belong to the legacy of the country’s industrial heartland. In every case, South Carolina went from below the other states by, at minimum, 14 percent in 2003, to being the manufacturing wage leader in 2024.  See the table below for details.

Conclusion

Since 2003, South Carolina’s manufacturing wages have caught up to and surpassed several states with deep-rooted manufacturing industries. Strong results like this are another sign of South Carolina’s thriving economy, motivated workforce, and collaborative connection between the state’s employers and employees.
 

[1] https://www.wsj.com/economy/union-membership-south-united-auto-workers-economy-b3d84f97