October 19, 2007 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Usual weekly earnings by educational attainment and sex

In the third quarter of 2007, median weekly earnings of the nation's 96 million full-time wage and salary workers age 25 and over were $745.

[Chart data—TXT]

Median weekly earnings of full-time workers age 25 and over without a high school diploma were $368 for women and $472 for men.

Women who were high school graduates (no college) had median weekly wages of $512, while men earned $697.

Median weekly earnings for workers with a bachelor’s degree (and no additional education) were $868 for women and $1,141 for men.

Among college graduates with advanced degrees (professional or master's degree and above), female workers made $1,080, compared with $1,475 for their male counterparts.

These weekly earnings data are from the Current Population Survey. Find more information on earnings in "Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers: Third Quarter 2007" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 07-1584. The median is the amount which divides a given earnings distribution into two equal groups, one having earnings above the median and the other having earnings below the median.