Teller Pay Lags Inflation: BLS Report

Wages for tellers at credit unions and banks didn’t quite keep up with inflation last year, and layoffs reduced their numbers. That news might not go down easily for tellers as new data revealed CEOs had their pay go up about double the rate of inflation.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Wednesday released its annual Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics showing tellers earned $18.10 an hour in May 2023, up 3.5% from a year earlier compared with the 4.0% increase in the Consumer Price Index for the 12 months ending May 2023.

Pay for CEOs grew 9.1% to $99.37 per hour, while pay for fast-food cooks grew 5.9% to $14.07.

The BLS estimated there were 340,820 tellers in May 2023, down 3.3% from a year earlier.

The only publicly available compensation data for credit unions is from the NCUA. It reports wages plus benefits, which can account for about half of total compensation.

NCUA data showed pay plus benefits in 2023’s second quarter for all credit union employees was worth about $96,759 per year, up 5.3% from a year earlier. Assuming a 40-hour week for all 52 weeks of a year, that equals $46.52 per hour, up from $44.17 a year earlier.

In recent years, many credit unions have increased pay for tellers and other workers.

The BLS data showed a few other common credit union occupations:

• Loan interviewers and clerks earned $22.78 an hour in May 2023, up 1.9% from a year earlier. There were 203,940 jobs, down -15.9% from a year earlier.
• Credit analysts earned $38.18 an hour in May 2023, up 0.7% from a year earlier. There were 73,200 jobs, up 1.7% from a year earlier.
• Public relations managers earned $64.79 an hour in May 2023, up 4.1% from a year earlier. There were 72,760 jobs, up 13.2% from a year earlier.