Southern California’s weekly wages have hit record highs with old-fashioned help: workers getting extra work.

The pay peaks were revealed in regional pay data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis showing that local bosses are upping how long workers are on the clock as well as hourly pay.

My trusty spreadsheet tells me that the average weekly wage at private employers in Los Angeles and Orange counties was a record-high $955.30 for the 12 months ended in February. That’s up $27.33 a week — a $1,421 annualized boost — compared to the previous 12 months, or a 2.8 percent increase. In the previous five years, weekly wages grew at just 1.8 percent annually.

In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, weekly wages averaged a record-high $803.94 through February, up $33.55 a week. That’s a $1,745 annualized hike or a 4.36 percent gain. In the previous five years, Inland Empire weekly wages grew at 0.5 percent annually.

Now this weekly pay statistic is made up of two components: how many hours worked and at what hourly rate.

The length of the typical work week isn’t a very dynamic statistic, so small variations can be important. Bosses often juggle staffing levels to maximize business productivity while minimizing labor costs.

Heavier use of part-time workers is a common way bosses limited labor costs in recent years. And critics of California’s pro-worker workplace regulations claim those rules, especially the minimum wage hikes, can cut the hours offered to employees.

But a growing regional economy and low unemployment are apparently forcing local private-industry bosses to extend the work week of late.

For example, the average L.A.-O.C. work week in past year was 34.93 hours, the longest since November 2016.

Please note that the year-over-year increase equals 5.5 minutes more worked a week. That may seem tiny but this metric hasn’t moved up or down more than 36 minutes in a decade.

Sadly, 5.5 minutes is the biggest increase since March 2016. And the last time the typical U.S. employee got a larger increase in hours worked, by this metric? February 2015.

Plus, add that L.A.-O.C. increase in work to a one-year rise of 2.55 percent in the local hourly wage to $28.50 and you see increased hours worked and rising pay rate for three consecutive months. It’s been 19 months since that last happened.

The Inland Empire’s time worked also rose in the past year to a 15-month high of 35.1 hours a week.

Yes, it’s only up 3.5 minutes. But it comes along with a 4.2 percent jump in hourly pay rates to $22.90. It’s a second straight month of both time worked and what was paid for those hours increased.

The last time pay and hours rose at the same time in Riverside and San Bernardino counties?

Four years ago.

DID YOU SEE?