Base pay rose 3.2%; gross pay was up 4.7%

ROSELAND, N.J., Sept. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Private-sector employment increased by 38,000 jobs in August, according to the ADP National Employment Report® produced by ADP Research in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab ("Stanford Lab").  

For all private-sector workers in the United States, base pay rose 3.2% and gross pay was up 4.7% year over year, according to ADP Pay Insights.

Base pay for job-stayers rose 3.0% year-over-year; base pay for job-changers increased 4.7%.

Gross pay for job-stayers rose 4.4% year-over year; gross pay for job-changers increased 7.3%.

Beginning with today's release of the August 2026 data, ADP Pay Insights offers deeper analytics, expanded geographic data, and an interactive data platform. Key enhancements to the monthly report include tracking of the year-over-year change in base pay drawn from contracted pay rates in addition to the reported change in gross pay. Gross pay is drawn from base pay plus bonuses, commissions, tips, and other earnings. ADP Pay Insights also now reports pay trends for all workers, job-stayers and job-changers combined.

Data on base and gross pay is available for 56 U.S. metropolitan areas. Base and gross pay data also is available by worker mobility, demographics, sector, employer size, and pay quartile.

Base and gross pay each are valuable indicators of labor-market conditions. Base pay changes tend to be long-lasting, and any change in this structural metric can send a signal on labor-market tightness or inflationary pressure.

Gross pay measures total compensation generated by labor-market activity, data that can be used to assess income growth and consumer spending power. Changes in gross pay can tell us how employers are responding to atypical economic conditions.

The ADP National Employment Report is an independent measure of the labor market based on the anonymized weekly payroll data of more than 26 million private-sector employees in the United States. ADP Pay Insights uses payroll transaction data to compare the wage growth of individual workers over 12-month intervals, resulting in more than 14.7 million year-over-year pay-change observations each month.  

Together, these reports use ADP's finely-grained data to provide a representative and high-frequency picture of the private-sector labor market.

"Pay can tell us a lot about today's choppy hiring. To understand hiring patterns, you have to look deeply into where pay growth is accelerating, where it's slowing, and for whom," said Dr. Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP.

"Once predictable wage growth has been overtaken by complexities of demographic change, persistent inflation, and AI's effects on jobs," Richardson said. "Our new Pay Insights report, with its enhanced data, can more fully reveal the dynamics of today's labor market."

August 2026 Report Highlights

View the ADP National Employment Report and interactive charts at http://www.adpemploymentreport.com/.

EMPLOYMENT REPORT

Private employers added 38,000 jobs in August
Private employers posted their slowest pace of job creation since January. Manufacturing, professional services, and information shed jobs. Education and health care, construction, and leisure and hospitality all showed solid hiring.

Change in U.S. Private Employment:     38,000

Change by Sector

- Goods-producing:     -10,000

• Natural resources and mining     -5,000
• Construction     12,000
• Manufacturing     -17,000

- Service-providing:     48,000

• Trade, transportation, and utilities     -5,000
• Information     -4,000
• Financial activities     6,000
• Professional and business services     -16,000
• Education and health services     45,000
• Leisure and hospitality     16,000
• Other services     6,000

Change by U.S. Regions

- Northeast:     38,000

• New England     12,000
• Mid-Atlantic     26,000

- Midwest:     5,000

• East North Central     -15,000
• West North Central     20,000

- South:     3,000

• South Atlantic     14,000
• East South Central     -2,000
• West South Central     -9,000

- West:     -8,000

• Mountain     -3,000
• Pacific     -5,000

Change by Establishment Size

- Small establishments:     3,000

• 1-19 employees     20,000
• 20-49 employees     -17,000

- Medium establishments:     0

• 50-249 employees     2,000
• 250-499 employees     -2,000

- Large establishments:     34,000

• 500+ employees     34,000

PAY INSIGHTS
ADP Pay Insights provides base pay growth and gross pay growth data across worker mobility, demographics, sector, employer size, pay quartile, and 56 U.S. metropolitan areas. The report also now offers pay growth distribution. Drawn from ADP's industry-leading workforce dataset, ADP Pay Insights uses payroll transaction data to provide a view on the wage dynamics of more than 14.7 million matched workers over a 12-month period.

"With its extended history, added dimensions of base pay and distribution, and granular metro information, Pay Insights more fully captures the pay structure of the U.S. labor market and how it's changing over time," said Liv Wang, lead data scientist, ADP Research.

"Our August release, for example, shows that pay growth has been decelerating for the past four years," Wang said. "Among lower-paid workers in particular, base pay growth has lost momentum and now is slower than it was prior to the pandemic."

Base pay growth slowed slightly in August
Pay growth for job-stayers was unchanged at 3 percent, while pay growth for job-changers edged down.

Gross pay growth slowed slightly in August
Pay growth for job-stayers was unchanged at 4.4 percent, while pay growth for job-changers slowed from 7.5 percent to 7.3 percent.

Visit our interactive platform for more information.

Median Change in Base Pay

• All workers     3.2%
• Job-stayers     3.0%
• Job-changers     4.7%

Median Change in Gross Pay

• All workers     4.7%
• Job-stayers     4.4%
• Job-changers     7.3%

Median Change in Base Pay by Sector

- Goods-producing:                                                   

• Natural resources and mining     3.3%
• Construction     4.0%
• Manufacturing     3.5%

- Service-providing:                       

• Trade, transportation, and utilities     3.3%
• Information     3.1%
• Financial activities     3.5%
• Professional and business services     3.2%
• Education and health services     3.0%
• Leisure and hospitality     2.9%
• Other services     3.0%

Median Change in Base Pay by Firm Size

- Medium firms:             

• 50-249 employees     3.5%
• 250-499 employees     3.3%

- Large firms:             

• 500+ employees     3.2%

To see Pay Insights by U.S. Metro, Gender, Age, and Pay Quartile, please visit https://payinsights.adp.com/.

The July total number of jobs added was revised from 44,000 to 46,000.

For additional information about the ADP National Employment Report, including historical files, employment and pay data, methodology, and a calendar of release dates, please visit https://adpemploymentreport.com/.    

The September 2026 ADP National Employment Report will be released on September 30, 2026 at 8:15 a.m. ET.

About ADP Research
The mission of ADP Research is to make the future of work more productive through data-driven discovery. Companies, workers, and policy makers rely on our finely tuned data and unique perspective to make informed decisions that impact workplaces around the world.

To subscribe to monthly email alerts or obtain additional information about ADP Research, including employment and pay data, methodology, and a calendar of release dates, please visit https://www.adpresearch.com.    

About ADP (NASDAQ: ADP)
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