Earnings

This page contains information on the earnings of employed persons derived from the Current Population Survey (CPS). Data on employed and unemployed persons, hours of work, and demographic characteristics of the labor force also are available.

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Earnings

Data measure usual hourly and weekly earnings of wage and salary workers. All self-employed persons are excluded, regardless of whether their businesses are incorporated. Data represent earnings before taxes and other deductions and include any overtime pay, commissions, or tips usually received. The earnings data are collected from one-fourth of the CPS total sample of approximately 60,000 households. Data are published quarterly.


Earnings by demographics

Earnings data are available by demographic characteristics such as age, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. See also Earnings by education.


Earnings by education

Data measure usual hourly and weekly earnings of wage and salary workers 25 years and over by educational attainment.


Hourly-paid workers

Data pertain only to workers who are paid hourly rates; salaried and other workers not paid by the hour are excluded. Hourly-paid workers make up approximately three-fifths of all wage and salary workers. See also Minimum wage workers


Minimum wage workers

Statistics on hourly-paid workers with earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage.

  • Annual report: Characteristics of minimum wage workers
HTML 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002
PDF 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002

  • Article: Characteristics of minimum wage workers in 2002 (September 2003) (Excerpt) (PDF)
  • Article: Estimating the number of minimum wage workers (January 1990) (PDF)

Occupation and industry

Data measure usual hourly and weekly earnings of wage and salary workers by occupation and by industry. See also Employment by occupation and industry.


Union earnings

Median weekly earnings for union and non-union full-time wage and salary workers are published annually. Occupation and industry detail is available and, additionally, demographic characteristics such as age, sex, race, and Hispanic ethnicity.


Working poor

Annual report on persons who, during the year, spent 27 weeks or more in the labor force (working or looking for work), but whose incomes still fell below the official poverty level.

 

Last Modified Date: August 25, 2008