Two new reports show cracks in Kootenai County’s economic reality, giving local low-income workers cause for concern.

In its yearly October ritual, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Thursday shows a disparity in the wage gap between Kootenai County and the rest of the country during the first quarter of 2019. While nationwide numbers dictate an average income of $1,164 per week, Kootenai County reported an average weekly wage of $762 — a full 35 percent less than the rest of the American workforce.

Two factors play roles in the wage gap, according to local representatives for the Idaho Department of Labor.

“Do we have a growing economy? Yes,” Dave Darrow, manager of the Idaho Department of Labor’s Post Falls office, said Friday. “Kootenai County is definitely experiencing growth ... Does that statistic specifically dictate that correlation? No. We also have a growing population base. The job market is growing. That’s obviously going to mean more of a working population.”

As much as an influx of workers might naturally drop the average wage, Department of Labor economist Sam Wolkenhauer said the real key to unlocking the wage gap equation lies in how the math is calculated.

“The thing about the weekly wage is that it doesn’t include hours,” Wolkenhauer said. “We don’t calculate hours. We get this data from the unemployment system, where they calculate an hourly rate but don’t actually calculate hours, which is why we go by a weekly wage.”

As a result, according to Wolkenhauer, the U.S. Bureau’s report doesn’t suggest the drop indicates lower earning for Idaho workers working comparible jobs to, say, Oregon or Nebraska.

“Just because it’s 30 percent lower [statewide], that doesn’t mean our wages are 30 percent lower,” he said. “In other words, an electrician in Idaho doesn’t make 30 percent less than an electrician in Washington. What it means is, the aggregate wage of the workforce is lower.”

Wolkenhauer said the wage imbalance in Kootenai County has far more to do with the types of jobs available locally.

“It’s really about the number of lower-paying jobs in the area,” he said. “This is a resort area. We have a lot of jobs here in the service sector. We have a lot of local call center jobs. That’s going to lower the overall spectrum of wages.”

The math gets more grim for lower-income residents in Coeur d’Alene. An Oct. 9 report released with American Community Survey data shows the rate of renters paying too much for rent skyrocketed from 42.4 percent in 2017 to 57.4 percent in 2018.

The report, released by the home-finding site Apartment List, defines cost-burdened renters as those spending more than 30 percent of their incomes on rent. The nationwide average of cost-burdened renters is 49.5 percent.

Bonnie Allan, managing partner at Compass Property Management in Coeur d’Alene, and Jodie Smith, account manager at Compass, say the rise in rent is attributed to an exploding influx of people moving to Coeur d’Alene.

“It’s really because of a large number of people coming in from other states,” Allan said. “You look at people coming in from California, and I use California because that’s where a lot of the people are coming from. People in California are used to paying $1,600 for a two-bedroom, one-bath. That’s the norm for them.”

Smith added that the California standard can’t help but naturally reset the local market.

“I notice a lot of renters, particularly those coming in from elsewhere, get comfortable paying [rent] in the $1,400 range,” she said. “That’s a big reason why the market has taken the leap that it has.”

Allan said the ability for new Idaho residents — drawn by the area’s cost of living and natural beauty — to pay more than native Idahoans puts the economic strain on local renters already accustomed to lower wages. The secret for all renters, she said, is to know what you can afford.

Gloom and doom aside, she said there’s a light — faint as it might appear — at the end of the tunnel.

“Maybe a lot of it is the time of year,” Allan said, noting the slowdown in interested renters that comes with the drop in temperatures, “but I’m noticing a ceiling. Over the spring and summer, our properties’ vacancy rate is around 1 percent. Right now it’s around 3 percent.”

The average vacancy rate nationwide as of the end of 2018 is 7 percent.

“There’s a ceiling for this,” Allan said. “There’s a ceiling for renters, and not all property owners are realizing that. If we’ve got an owner who listens to our price recommendations, the property usually gets snatched up right away. But if we’ve got an owner that wants to go $200 over our recommendation because he thinks someone will come along, that property will sit: not forever, but it will sit longer than it should. That gives me hope.”

Here’s the Apartment List report: https://www.apartmentlist.com/rentonomics/cost-burden-2019/