October 14, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Women's earnings as a percentage of men's, 2008
In 1979, women working full time earned 62 percent of what men did; in 2008, women's earnings were 80 percent of men's.
[Chart data]
Women who worked full time in wage and salary jobs had median usual weekly earnings of $638 in 2008. This represented 80 percent of men's median weekly earnings ($798).
Earnings of Asian ($753) and white ($654) women were substantially higher than the earnings of their black ($554) and Hispanic ($501) counterparts. Women's-to-men's earnings ratios were higher among blacks (89 percent) and Hispanics (90 percent) than among whites (79 percent) and Asians (78 percent).
These data are from the Current Population Survey. For more information, see Women in the Labor Force: A Databook (2009 Edition), BLS Report 1018, September 2009.
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