April 26, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Foreign born and earnings in 2005

As with the native born, the earnings of foreign-born workers increase with education.

Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers 25 years and over, foreign born and native born, by educational attainment, 2005
[Chart data—TXT]

In 2005, the median usual weekly earnings of foreign-born full-time wage and salary workers age 25 and over were $543, compared with $724 for the native born.

The foreign born with less than a high school education earned $385 per week in 2005, while those with bachelor’s degrees and higher earned 2-1/2 times as much—$960 a week.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. Find more information in "Foreign-born Workers: Labor Force Characteristics in 2005" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-640.

 

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