October 25, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Women's earnings 80 percent of men's in 2003

Between 1979 and 2003, the earnings gap between women and men narrowed for most major age groups. Overall, the women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio was 80 percent in 2003, up from 63 percent in 1979.

[Chart data—TXT]

The ratio of women’s to men’s earnings among 16- to 24-year-olds was 93.3 percent in 2003 compared with 78.5 percent in 1979, and that for 25- to 34-years-olds was 87 percent in 2003 compared with 67.4 percent in 1979.

Among 35- to 44-year-olds, women earned 76.2 percent as much as men in 2003 and 58.3 percent in 1979, while among 45- to 54-year-olds, women earned 73 percent as much as men in 2003 and 56.9 percent as much in 1979.

These data on earnings are produced by the Current Population Survey. Earnings data in this article are median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers. For more information see "Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2003," BLS Report 978 (PDF 208K).