Cannabis Workers Earn 11% More Than U.S. Median

An analysis by Glassdoor has revealed that workers in the cannabis industry earn 11% more than the median U.S. wage and that job openings in the industry increased 76% over 2018, according to a CNBC report.

The growth was seen between December of 2017 and December of 2018. Just comparing December 2017 to December 2018, job openings went from 858 to 1,512. It doesn’t seem like that trend will be changing any time soon, as new states continue to legalize cannabis.

“Investment in hiring is one of the strongest indicators for business confidence as it requires a substantial long-term investment of time, effort and money.” — Daniel Zhao, data scientist with Glassdoor, via CNBC

These aren’t just retail jobs, either. 53 percent of the openings are for professional positions such as audit assurance managers, marketing managers, and product managers. The median paycheck in the cannabis industry is $58,511 — the U.S. overall median is $52,863.

The top five cities for cannabis job openings by percent of total listings are: San Francisco (13 percent), Los Angeles (12 percent), Denver (7 percent), Seattle (4 percent) and New York (4 percent).

More than 80 percent of openings seem to be with small to medium-sized businesses with 500 employees or less.

The trend is not expected to let up anytime soon. As the cannabis industry continues to mature, even more workers will be needed as companies enter larger markets and need to meet tax and accounting standards, among other compliance issues.