Rural wages rarely exceed U.S. average, but rural places with high compensation may surprise you

The average compensation for a U.S. worker in 2008 was $56,117, and that figure was exceeded in only 41 of the 2,037 rural counties, Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder reports, citing data from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis.

BEA counts both pay and benefits in its measure of total compensation, and factors in only compensation of the employed, leaving out benefits for unemployment, disability and so on.) While rural areas of the Great Plains have boasted lower unemployment rates than the national average during the recession, these areas also have some of the lowest average compensation of any U.S. counties. Conversely, "coalfield counties of southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky are always listed among the nation’s poorest, but for those who have jobs, compensation is among the highest in rural America," Bishop writes.

The Yonder has compiled a list of the top 50 and bottom 50 rural counties by average employee compensation, and the top 50 and bottom 50 exurban counties by average compensation. Among rural counties, Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope County led with an average total compensation of over $98,000 a year; ironically, Montana's Petroleum County ranked last, at just over $27,000 a year. (Read more)