Benton County workers made the third highest average weekly wages in the state last year, says a report released Wednesday by the state Employment Security Department.

The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages shows workers in Benton County earned a weekly wage of $842 in 2007, up from $811 a week in 2006, a gain of 3.9 percent. Workers in Franklin County earned $593 a week in 2007, compared to $562 a week in 2006, an increase of 5.5 percent.

Jobs in professional, scientific and technical services, which would include employment at Hanford and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and utility companies, account for the bulk of the high wages in Benton County, said Dean Schau, state regional labor economist for the State Employment Security Department.

In Franklin County, agriculture, food processing and the transport and warehousing sector are among the top employers and wage providers, he said. Franklin County placed 22nd on the average weekly wage table in Washington.

Washington workers' average weekly wage increased to $866 in 2007, up 5 percent from 2006. The information services industry was the highest average pay provider in the state.

The report includes jobs that cover workers for mandatory unemployment insurance.

The report shows the state added more good paying jobs to the economy last year while losing lower paying jobs, Schau said. The Tri-City economy is still healthy despite a wage disparity among the top 20 percent and bottom 20 percent of wage earners in Benton County, the highest in the state, he said.

Nationally, the consumer price index rose 4.1 percent from December 2006 to December 2007. But the Tri-Cities is holding its own as an inexpensive place to live. Housing and power costs less and so does food, which was confirmed again by the latest ACCRA Cost of Living Index report for the second quarter of 2008.

The index, which tracks costs of living trends in more than 350 communities throughout the nation, gives the Tri-Cities a 89.9 composite rating, the lowest in the Pacific Northwest.

It doesn't say prices are going down in the area, but that prices in the Tri-Cities are relatively lower than they are in other communities, said Carl Adrian, president and chief executive officer of the Tri-City Development Council.

The index, compiled by the Council for Community and Economic Research, measures relative price levels for consumer goods and services.

In contrast, Spokane's index rating is 91.2, Yakima is 99 and Seattle-Bellevue-Everett is 123.4.