January 22, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Weekly earnings in the fourth quarter

Median weekly earnings of the nation's 98.4 million full-time wage and salary workers were $605 in the fourth quarter of 2001. This was 3.4 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 1.9 percent in the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers over the same period.

[Chart data—TXT]

Women who usually worked full time had median earnings of $517 per week in the fourth quarter of 2001, up from $502 a year earlier. Median earnings of men who worked full time were $683 in the fourth quarter of 2001, up from $658 a year earlier.

The female-to-male earnings ratio was 75.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2001.

Data on weekly earnings are from the Current Population Survey. Figures in this article are not seasonally adjusted. Find more information on earnings in "Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers: Fourth Quarter 2001," news release USDL 02-29.