Technical information: (202) 691-6378 USDL 09-0814
http://www.bls.gov/cps/
For release: 10:00 A.M. (EDT)
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 Thursday, July 16, 2009
USUAL WEEKLY EARNINGS OF WAGE AND SALARY WORKERS:
SECOND QUARTER 2009
Median weekly earnings of the nation's 100.1 million full-time wage
and salary workers were $734 in the second quarter of 2009, the Bureau
of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.
This was 2.1 percent higher than a year earlier. The Consumer Price
Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) fell by 1.2 percent over the
same period.
Data on usual weekly earnings are collected as part of the Current
Population Survey, a nationwide sample survey of households in which
respondents are asked, among other things, how much each wage and
salary worker usually earns. (See the Technical Note.) Highlights
from the second-quarter data are:
--Women who usually worked full time had median earnings of $652
per week, or 80.0 percent of the $815 median for men. The fe-
male-to-male earnings ratios were higher among blacks (91.5 per-
cent) and Hispanics (88.9 percent) than among whites (79.1 per-
cent) or Asians (80.6 percent). (See table 1.)
--Median earnings for black men working at full-time jobs were $620
per week, 73.6 percent of the median for white men ($842). The
difference was smaller among women, as black women's median earn-
ings ($567) were 85.1 percent of those for white women ($666).
Overall, median earnings of Hispanics who worked full time
($547) were lower than those of blacks ($592), whites ($754),
and Asians ($909). (See table 1.)
--Among men, those age 45 to 54 and age 55 to 64 had the highest
median weekly earnings, $961 and $964, respectively. Among women,
weekly earnings were highest for those ages 55 to 64 ($721).
(See table 2.)
--Among the major occupational groups, persons employed full time
in management, professional, and related occupations had the high-
est median weekly earnings--$1,250 for men and $900 for women. Per-
sons employed in service jobs earned the least. (See table 3.)
--Full-time workers age 25 and over without a high school diploma had
median weekly earnings of $465, compared with $630 for high school
graduates (no college) and $1,140 for those holding at least a bach-
elor's degree. Among college graduates with advanced degrees (profes-
sional or master's degree and above), the highest earning 10 percent
of male workers made $3,434 or more per week, compared with $2,130 or
more for their female counterparts. (See table 4.)
