CNNMoney.com > Small Business > Best Places to Launch

Low wages
Looking to keep your staffing costs down? Start with these metro areas, where the hourly wages are the lowest.
Rank Metro area Average hourly wage
1 McAllen, TX $13.85
2 Brownsville, TX $14.08
3 Myrtle Beach, SC $14.54
4 Valdosta, GA $14.65
5 Laredo, TX $14.74
6 Jacksonville, NC $14.86
7 Morristown, TN $14.96
8 Joplin, MO $15.02
9 Jonesboro, AR $15.05
10 Florence, AL $15.15
11 Sumter, SC $15.17
12 Yuma, AZ $15.18
13 Lawton, OK $15.3
14 Hot Springs, AR $15.39
15 Hattiesburg, MS $15.5
16 Monroe, LA $15.5
17 San Angelo, TX $15.5
18 Danville, VA $15.51
19 Goldsboro, NC $15.51
20 Pine Bluff, AR $15.54
21 Abilene, TX $15.55
22 Gadsden, AL $15.55
23 Wheeling, WV $15.61
24 Fort Smith, AR $15.66
25 Logan, UT $15.68
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008 Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.
Best Places Winners
MAPS
Video
Find your launch spot
Do you prefer a place that is: Small Medium Large
The factors that matter most to me are:
 Affordable wages  Few foreclosures
 Educated workers  Low housing costs
 Low crime  High local incomes
 A growing economy  Population growth
 Growing small business population

Video
This year we partnered with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to find the 50 most business-friendly communities in America.

With help from Robert Fairlie, an economist and leading scholar of entrepreneurship at the University of California, Santa Cruz, we developed a methodology and sifted through such data on factors such as per capita income, hourly wages, workforce quality, crime rates, taxes and foreclosures. More

Comments? E-mail the editors