January 18, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Weekly earnings in the third quarter

Median weekly earnings of the nation's 100.9 million full-time wage and salary workers were $595 in the third quarter of 2001. This was 3.5 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 2.7 percent in the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers over the same period.

Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers, 2000 III and 2001 III
[Chart data—TXT]

Women who usually worked full time had median earnings of $507 per week in the third quarter of 2001, up from $491 a year earlier. Median earnings of men who worked full time were $674 in the third quarter of 2001, up from $640 a year earlier.

The female-to-male earnings ratio was 75.2 percent in the third quarter of 2001.

Data on weekly earnings are from the Current Population Survey. Find more information on earnings in "Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers: Third Quarter 2001," news release USDL 01-368.