July 21, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Earnings and education in the second quarter of 2008

Full-time workers age 25 years and over without a high school diploma had median weekly earnings of $449 in the second quarter of 2008 compared with $620 for high school graduates (no college) and $1,105 for those holding at least a bachelor’s degree.

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Workers with some college or an associate degree made $727 per week.

Median weekly earnings of those with a bachelor's degree only were $999. College graduates with advanced degrees had median weekly earnings of $1,298.

For all full-time workers age 25 years and over, median earnings were $760 per week in the second quarter of 2008.

Data on weekly earnings are from the Current Population Survey. Figures in this article are not seasonally adjusted. Find more information on earnings in "Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers: Second Quarter 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 08-0976. 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.