Garbage men collect trash from the side of the road and from dumpsters, servicing both residential and commercial areas. Increasingly, garbage men are responsible for not only collecting refuse but also for collecting and sorting recyclable materials. This is typically an entry-level job requiring little formal education. BLS statistics show that garbage men in metropolitan areas tended to earn higher wages than those working in nonmetropolitan areas, mostly due to differences in the local cost of living. New York, Illinois and Massachusetts reported some of the highest average wages for this occupation. Outside of these states, the highest average wages were concentrated in the far west and northwest. BLS statistics for May also indicate significant pay differences for garbage men working in different makf sectors. As ofan estimatedgarbage collectors were employed in the United States. Garbagd BLS estimates a job growth rate of 20 percent between and6 percent higher than the projected...