June 02, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Earnings of foreign-born workers, 2004

In 2004, the median usual weekly earnings of foreign-born full-time wage and salary workers ($502), were 75.6 percent of those of their native-born counterparts ($664).

Median usual weekly earnings of foreign-born and native-born full-time wage and salary workers by sex, 2004
[Chart data—TXT]

The earnings of foreign-born men ($518) were 69.1 percent of those of native-born men ($749), while foreign-born women had earnings ($473) that were 81.0 percent of those of native-born women ($585).

The foreign-to-native-born earnings gap is narrower at higher education levels. For example, the median usual weekly earnings of foreign-born full time wage and salary workers with a bachelor's degree or higher ($943) were 94.9 percent of those of their native-born counterparts ($994) in 2004.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. Find more information in "Labor Force Characteristics of Foreign-born Workers in 2004" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-834.

 

Related TED articles: 

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

Find out more about the story of TED