>Why so much difference between this estimate from 2004 and the
>figure that Doug cites from this year (which can't be accounted for
>by COLA, etc.)?
Ok, a BLS guy explained the difference to me. The Current Employment Statistics (CES) - the numbers that come out in the monthly employment report - includes overtime and incentive pay in its definition of wages; the OES, just base pay.
The page for motor vehicle manufacturing, a more comparable classification, is at <http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics4_336100.htm#b51-0000>. Note that the median production worker wage is actually higher than the mean, oddly enough.
Doug