Cities with the biggest pay hikes

One-year pay increase: 2%

While Minneapolis is hundreds of miles from North Dakota's oil-rich Bakken Formation, it's still benefiting from the energy boom, according to Bardaro.

Related: Fastest growing boomtowns

The metro area's Pine Bend refinery is the largest in the country, employing 900 full-time and 500 contract workers, and is currently undergoing a $400 million expansion that will add even more to its workforce, she said.

With employers like Medtronic (MDT), the world's largest medical device maker, tech is another field where wages are growing. Other cutting-edge companies include Ecolab (ECL), which provides methods of preserving food and water, Mosaic (MOS), a crop nutrition development company, and Techne (TECH), a hospital equipment maker.

First published October 16, 2013: 7:26 AM ET

Source: PayScale
The PayScale Index tracks changes in the earnings of full-time private industry employees on a quarterly basis. It takes into account total cash compensation, which is defined as all cash payments earned by an employee during a year of full-time employment. This report is based on the year-over-year percentage change in compensation for the 12 months ending September 30, 2013. (More on the methodology).

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