Household Income of New Britain Residents Less Than Pay of Jobs Located in City

Data in a recent study by DataHaven shows household income in New Britain lags behind the pay of jobs in the city. The data raises the question about how much of the relatively higher income jobs that are located in New Britain are held by workers who reside in other towns.

The study, DataHaven’s New Britain 2023 Equity Profile, found that jobs in New Britain in 2021 had an average annual pay of $65,105. The same study found that the 2021 median household income in the city was $50,379 — nearly $15,000 per year less.

The exact opposite was true for the state as a whole. The statewide average annual pay of $77,816 per job was magnified into a median household income of $83,572. Many households have more than one wage or salary earner, making it all the more significant that the median household income in New Britain was less than the average income of jobs located in the city.

DataHaven’s report says that, “At the end of 2021, there were 23,435 total jobs in New Britain, with the largest share in the Health Care and Social Assistance sector.”

New Britain is home to several large institutional employers, including two hospitals. The data from, DataHaven, showed that 6,803 of the 23,435 jobs in New Britain, 29%, were in the Health Care and Social Assistance sector. That compares to less than 17% in that sector statewide. The average annual pay for those jobs, $58,827 was more than $8,000 per year higher than the median household income in the city.

But the data also shows that the annual pay for the Finance and Insurance sector, $104,430, and the Manufacturing sector, $92,381, in New Britain were far higher still than the median household income of city residents.

It is not clear from the data about how many of these jobs are held by New Britain residents.

The data on the pay for jobs located in the city is based on the location of workplaces, not the residences of the workers, according to the State Department of Labor. Median household income reports the incomes of households where they live.

Despite rising incomes for people in areas nearby New Britain, DataHaven’s research appears to show that economic prospects for New Britain residents have been difficult. According to DataHaven’s Greater Hartford Community Wellbeing Index, New Britain’s median household income, adjusted for inflation, has stagnated between 1980 and 2020, even while, “inflation-adjusted median household incomes in Greater Hartford and Connecticut have grown about 27 percent.”

The New Britain Equity Profile also showed a downward movement in median household incomes in New Britain, specifically over the twenty years, from 2000 to 2021.

The inequality affecting New Britain residents also shows in the proportion of city residents residing below the poverty line. The study shows more than one-in-five New Britain residents living below the official poverty line in 2021.

Nearly one-in-five Black city residents, 17%, were living under the poverty line and 30% of Latino residents were. But, with poverty among white New Britain residents, 11%, nearly double the statewide white average, it appears that both systematic racism and economic class have roles in inequality affecting New Britain residents.

The unequal incomes incomes experienced by New Britain residents come against a stark backdrop of rising rents for apartment dwellers in the city.

With lower incomes and high rents and other housing costs, a greater housing cost burden falls on New Britain residents. The DataHaven study shows 43% New Britain resident being housing-cost-burdened.

DataHaven says that, “A household is cost-burdened when they spend 30 percent or more of their income on housing costs, and severely cost-burdened when they spend half or more of their income on housing costs.”

The DataHaven study showed 22% of New Britain residents as housing-cost-burdened, and another 19% severely-housing-cost-burdened — meaning nearly one-in-five New Britain residents pays more than half of their incomes in housing costs, alone.

The data point to a reality in which higher incomes are separated from New Britain residents, even when those jobs are located within the city, yet higher costs, especially housing costs, further degrade income available for household quality of life for a very high percent of New Britain residents.

DataHaven says that,

The DataHaven Town Equity Reports disaggregate data from the 2020 Census, American Community Survey microdata files, DataHaven Community Wellbeing Survey record-level files, and federal and state agencies to create relevant town-level information that is not available from any other source. These innovative and user-friendly reports are informing many local- and state-level efforts to improve community well-being and racial equity.

DataHaven says its,

mission is to empower people to create thriving communities by collecting and ensuring access to data on well-being, equity, and quality of life. We have served Connecticut as a nonprofit organization since 1992, working with many partners to develop reports, tools, and technical assistance programs that make information more useful to local communities.

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