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Small businesses are hiring and paying more for their new employees. The May SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard, an economic indicator that tracks the health of U.S. small businesses, indicates that small-business hiring and salaries rose last month.
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Year-to-date, small-business hiring has increased 1.8 percent, and salaries are up 2.7 percent. In the Midwest, small businesses increased the number of employees by 1.2 percent in May, and paychecks rose an average of 1.6 percent.

The average small-business salary in the U.S. is $32,142.

May was the 21st consecutive month that SurePayroll reported salary growth in the small- business economy. SurePayroll's analysis is based on payroll records of more than 18,000 companies that use the company's payroll service.

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