Usual Weekly Earnings Summary
Technical information: (202) 691-6378 USDL 08-0976 http://www.bls.gov/cps/ For release: 10:00 A.M. (EDT) Media contact: (202) 691-5902 Thursday, July 17, 2008 USUAL WEEKLY EARNINGS OF WAGE AND SALARY WORKERS: SECOND QUARTER 2008 Median weekly earnings of the nation's 107.1 million full-time wage and salary workers were $719 in the second quarter of 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. This was 4.2 per- cent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 4.4 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over the same period. Data on usual earnings are collected as part of the Current Population Sur- vey, a nationwide sample survey of households in which respondents are asked, among other things, how much each wage and salary worker usually earns. (See the Technical Note.) Highlights from the second-quarter data are: --Women who usually worked full time had median earnings of $634 per week, or 79.3 percent of the $800 median for men. The female-to-male earnings ratios were higher among blacks (92.4 percent) and Hispanics (86.8 percent) than among whites (78.4 percent) or Asians (76.0 percent). (See table 1.) --Median earnings for black men working at full-time jobs were $615 per week, 74.4 percent of the median for white men ($827). The difference was less among women, as black women's median earnings ($568) were 87.7 percent of those for their white counterparts ($648). Overall, median earnings of Hispanics who worked full time ($537) were lower than those of blacks ($591), whites ($738), and Asians ($855). (See table 1.) --Among men, those age 45 to 54 and 55 to 64 had the highest median weekly earnings, $935 and $946, respectively. Among women, weekly earnings were highest for those age 55 to 64 ($716). (See table 2.) --Among the major occupational groups, persons employed full time in managerial, professional, and related occupations had the highest median weekly earnings-- $1,243 for men and $884 for women. Persons employed in service jobs earned the least. (See table 3.) --Full-time workers age 25 years and over without a high school diploma had med- ian weekly earnings of $449, compared with $620 for high school graduates (no college) and $1,105 for those holding at least a bachelor's degree. Among col- lege graduates with advanced degrees (professional or master's degree and above), the highest 10 percent of male workers made $3,235 or more per week, compared with $2,070 or more for their female counterparts. (See table 4.)
- Usual Weekly Earnings Explanatory Note
- Table 1. Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by selected characteristics, quarterly averages, not seasonally adjusted
- Table 2. Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by age, race, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, and sex, second quarter 2008 averages, not seasonally adjusted
- Table 3. Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by occupation and sex, quarterly averages, not seasonally adjusted
- Table 4. Quartiles and selected deciles of usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by selected characteristics, second quarter 2008 averages, not seasonally adjusted
- Table 5. Median usual weekly earnings of part-time wage and salary workers by selected characteristics, quarterly averages, not seasonally adjusted
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Last Modified Date: July 17, 2008