LEWISTON – The analyst who said a Maine casino would pay better than the state’s average hourly wage says he used a method that was legitimate but different than the formula used by the Department of Labor.

Labor Department figures indicate the average hourly wage in Maine in 2001 was $14.46, while a study paid for by the pro-casino campaign last week calculated an average wage last year of $13.53.

The lower hourly number allowed casino supporters to make the disputed claim that casino workers’ projected average hourly wage, including tips, would be $14.47, 94 cents an hour more than the state’s average wage.

Casino opponents quickly cried foul, saying the study, prepared by University of Southern Maine economist Charles Colgan, was using a wrong number.

Among the critics was former Maine Department of Labor Commissioner Valerie Landry, who said the average hourly wage should rise, not fall from 2001 to 2002.

She predicted that when the Maine Department of Labor calculates the 2002 figure, it will be higher than 2001’s $14.46 – and higher than the $14.47 an hour that casino supporters claim the average worker will make at a casino.

Colgan, a respected former state economist under three governors, this week defended his numbers, saying he crunched them using a different method than the Department of Labor.

The department calculates the figure after asking employers what hourly wage they paid workers. It’s a purer way to get the average hourly pay, but it can be more time consuming, said Merrill Huhtala in the department’s Labor Market Information Services.

The average hourly wage in Maine has risen continually at least since 1995, Huhtala said. It was $11.75 in 1995, $12.68 in 1998 and $14.15 in 2000. The department doesn’t have the hourly wage averages for every year, he said.

Colgan said this week he didn’t want to use the 2001 figure in putting together his analysis for the pro-casino Think About It campaign. So he looked at the personal income data published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

One reason that Colgan’s number came out lower than the state average could be that his calculation included pay of part-time workers, overtime and bonuses, Colgan said.

“There is no simple answer to the question of what Maine’s average wage was,” he said.