By G. SCOTT THOMAS
Business First

Salaries tend to be lower in the Buffalo area than in the United States overall. Local per capita income, as a result, is now 8 percent below the national average.

But several high-profile occupations are bucking this trend, actually paying more in Western New York than in the nation as a whole, according to a new study by Bizjournals.com.

The Buffalo area surpasses the national pay levels for nine of 20 occupations covered by the study, including construction managers, college administrators, general practitioners and surgeons.

And it's not alone. Bizjournals.com has found that smaller markets are often financially competitive with giant metropolitan areas:

• Albany is No. 1 in the nation in average annual pay for construction managers.

• Dentists earn more in Charlotte than in any other market in the study group.

• Stockton, Calif., leads the salary rankings for electrical engineers.

• Family doctors do better in Syracuse than anywhere else.

• The top-paying market for pharmacists is Bakersfield, Calif.

• Surgeons draw larger paychecks in Albuquerque than in any other part of the country.

Bizjournals.com is the online media division of American City Business Journals Inc., the parent company of Business First and the Buffalo Law Journal. It compared the average salaries for 20 upscale occupations within the 100 biggest metros, using raw data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many of the results are favorable for the Buffalo metro, which consists of Erie and Niagara counties.

The local market ranks among the nation's 10 salary leaders for two occupations. It's fifth nationally for surgeons, who make an average of $206,680 per year here, which is 8 percent above the corresponding national figure of $191,410.

And the Buffalo area is sixth for construction managers, who earn $113,770 on average locally. That's 32.6 percent ahead of the U.S. average for that occupation, $85,830.

Four other jobs pay at least 4 percent more in Western New York than they do nationally - college administrators (12.4 percent higher in the Buffalo area), family and general practitioners (9.9 percent higher), medical and health-services managers (6.5 percent), and industrial production managers (4.5 percent).

Local and national averages for all 20 occupations in Bizjournals.com's study can be found in a chart accompanying this story, as can the leaders for annual pay within each category.

Several factors affect the local salary levels for selected occupations. Among them:

• Market specialties. Austin, Albuquerque and Columbus are the homes of large state universities. So it's no surprise that they rank 1-2-3 in salaries for college administrators.

Buffalo is a strong 26th in the same category, largely because of the presence of the University at Buffalo and Buffalo State College, whose pay scales are structured by the State University of New York.

• State conditions. Construction projects tend to be more expensive in New York state because of prevailing wage rates and the strength of labor unions. Five of the 10 highest-paying markets for construction managers are in New York, led by Albany and New York City, with Buffalo coming in sixth.

• Market size. The highest salaries for lawyers are found in the nation's most populous markets. New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco-Oakland and adjacent metros (San Jose, Oxnard-Thousand Oaks) are the top five entries on that list, followed by Atlanta and Washington.

Buffalo, as the nation's 47th-largest metro, is relatively unattractive for lawyers. The profession's local average of $98,840 per year falls 16.4 percent below the corresponding national average of $118,280. Buffalo ranks 80th in salaries for lawyers, its worst rank in any category.

Two other occupations pay at least 10 percent less in Western New York than in the nation as a whole - computer and information-systems managers (14 percent lower) and engineering managers (12.3 percent).

Bizjournals.com focused on 20 occupations that offer high wages to sizable pools of employees. Each job fits into the top 10 percent of the national pay scale, as well as the upper half in terms of total employment.

The study group consisted of America's 100 largest metropolitan areas, ranging from New York City, with 18.82 million residents as of mid-2007, to Daytona Beach, Fla., with 500,400. The group's total population was 197.3 million, about 65 percent of the national total.

All figures used in the analysis were collected last year by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The study also used the bureau's occupational titles, some of which are quite long, such as "securities and financial services sales agents," better known as stockbrokers.

San Jose has the highest salaries in four of the 20 categories, a couple of them with a high-tech bent. It tops the pay scales for computer and information systems managers, engineering managers, lawyers and marketing managers.

Austin and Bridgeport-Stamford, Conn., are tied for second place. Each is No. 1 on three pay scales - Austin for college administrators, industrial production managers and purchasing managers; Bridgeport-Stamford for administrators of elementary and secondary schools, general and operations managers, and securities and financial-services sales agents.

The 20 occupations covered by Bizjournals.com's study are concentrated in the managerial, financial, technical and medical fields. The top metro in every category has an average salary above $109,000.

The most competitive categories are chief executives, dentists, family and general practitioners, and surgeons. They're the only fields where the average salaries for all 100 markets are in six figures.