If you're a short-order cook wannabe, you might want to head to eastern Utah, where you might make $22,670 a year although you're just learning the ropes. Take that same inexperience to a short-order cook job in Salt Lake or Utah counties or the southwest portion of the state and you'll probably start out at less than $14,000.

What's more, in Salt Lake County, you might never rise to the starting wage in the eastern portion of the state.

That kind of information about occupations and what they pay is available in an updated Utah Department of Workforce Services database of 570-plus occupations. It breaks down the wages for inexperienced, average, median and middle ranges by occupation, with a look at nine geographic regions, as well as overall statewide numbers. The data is from May 2008, the most recent available.

DWS is paid by the U.S. Bureau of Labor to gather the statistics and is required to get responses from 75 percent of employers in an area. That means the data can be compared apples-to-apples in different parts of the country, said DWS labor market economist John Mathews. It's a tool used primarily by employers who are trying to stay competitive, job seekers and students planning careers.

You can learn, for instance, that when they're just starting out, dental hygienists can make from a low of $37,640 in eastern Utah to a high of $60,540 in the Ogden-Clearfield area. And a general dentist can expect, early in his career, to make something between Provo-Orem's almost $42,000 and $157,500 in Box Elder and Rich counties.

Nowhere in the state does the data look good for actors, who reportedly make nothing, regardless of the venue. But Mathews said actors typically work on contract and the database includes payroll data. The database also doesn't include top salary ranges. "We like measures of central tendency," he said.

Besides the wage data, you can mine other information. Click on the name of the occupation and you can find the description, a statewide employment outlook — it's pretty sunny for accountants and electricians, but not so good for avionics technicians and crossing guards — license information, a look at which skills are valuable to a job, related occupations, industries and employers and current job openings. The database now also offers "transferable skills" data and a comprehensive list of Utah employers.

The occupational wage data is produced by DWS' Occupational Employment Statistics. The database, which is both searchable and downloadable, can be accessed online at jobs.utah.gov/jsp/wi/utalmis/gotoOccwage.do.

E-MAIL: lois@desnews.com