Data on usual earnings are collected as part of the Current Population
Survey, a nationwide sample survey of households in which respondents are asked, among other things, how much each wage and salary worker usually earns.
Highlights from the first-quarter data are:
- Women who usually worked full time had median earnings of $615 per week, or 81.0 percent of the $759 median for men. The female-to-male earnings ratios were higher among blacks (92.3 percent), Hispanics or Latinos (90.6 percent), and Asians (86.0 percent) than among whites (79.8 percent).
- Median earnings for black men working at full-time jobs were $585 per week, 74.7 percent of the median for white men ($783). The difference was less among women, as black women’s median earnings ($540) were 86.4 percent of those for their white counterparts ($625). Overall, median earnings of Hispanics or Latinos who worked full time ($502) were lower than those of blacks ($561), whites ($714), and Asians ($798).
- Among men, those age 55 to 64 years old had the highest median weekly earnings ($933). Among women, earnings were highest for those age 55 to 64 ($685) and age 45 to 54 ($680).
- Among the major occupational groups, persons employed full time in managerial, professional, and related occupations had the highest median weekly earnings--$1,162 for men and $846 for women. Men and women in service jobs earned the least.
- Full-time workers age 25 and over without a high school diploma had median weekly earnings of $429, compared with $602 for high school graduates (no college) and $1,030 for those holding at least a bachelor's degree. Among college graduates with advanced degrees (professional or master’s degree and above), the highest earning 10 percent of male workers made $2,924 or more per week, compared with $1,980 or more for their female counterparts.
