July 02, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Earnings of part-timers

Women who worked part time—that is, less than 35 hours per week—accounted for 24.6 percent of all female wage and salary workers in 2001. In contrast, just 10.6 percent of men in wage and salary jobs worked part time.

[Chart data—TXT]

Median weekly earnings of female part-time workers were $186, or 36.4 percent of the median for women who worked full time. The earnings of male part-time workers ($168) were somewhat lower than those of female part-timers. This is largely because, unlike women, male part-time workers are highly concentrated in the youngest age groups, which typically have lower earnings. In 2001, about 54 percent of male part-time workers were 16 to 24 years old, compared with 32 percent of female part-timers.

These data on earnings are produced by the Current Population Survey. More information can be found in "Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2001," BLS Report 960 (PDF 219K).

Related TED article:

• Paid by the hour in 2001

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