July 17, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Education and usual weekly earnings for women and men, second quarter 2009

Full-time workers age 25 and over without a high school diploma had median, or 50th percentile, weekly earnings of $465 compared with $630 for high school graduates (no college). Workers with bachelor's degrees had earnings of $1,031, and those with advanced degrees, $1,332.

Percentiles of usual weekly earnings of full-time workers, age 25 years and over, by sex and educational attainment, second quarter 2009
[Chart data—TXT]

Earnings varied between men and women. Men without a high school diploma had median weekly earnings of $503, while women without a diploma had median weekly earnings of $387. For high school graduates, median weekly earnings of men were $714, for women, $550. Among workers with bachelor's degrees, men had median weekly earnings of $1,209, women, $882.

Among college graduates with advanced degrees (professional or master's degree and above), the highest earning 10 percent of male workers, those at the 90th percentile, made $3,434 or more per week, compared with $2,130 or more for their female counterparts.

These data are from the Current Population Survey and are not seasonally adjusted. More information can be found in "Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers: Second Quarter 2009" (HTML) (PDF) news release 09-0814.

 

 

Of interest

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