Earnings
This page contains information on the earnings of employed persons derived from the Current Population Survey (CPS). Data on employed and unemployed persons, hours of work, and other demographic and labor force characteristics also are available.
Earnings
Data measure usual hourly and weekly earnings of wage and salary workers. All self-employed persons are excluded, regardless of whether their businesses are incorporated. Data represent earnings before taxes and other deductions and include any overtime pay, commissions, or tips usually received. The earnings data are collected from one-fourth of the CPS total sample of approximately 60,000 households. Data are published quarterly.
Earnings by demographics
Earnings data are available by demographic characteristics such as age, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. See also Earnings by education and Employment and unemployment by demographics.
Earnings by education
Data measure usual hourly and weekly earnings of wage and salary workers 25 years and over by educational attainment. See also Employment and unemployment by educational attainment.
- News release: Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary workers (Quarterly)
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- Charts:
Hourly-paid workers
Data pertain only to workers who are paid hourly rates; salaried and other workers not paid by the hour are excluded. Hourly-paid workers make up approximately three-fifths of all wage and salary workers. See also Minimum wage workers.
Minimum wage workers
Statistics on hourly-paid workers with earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage.
Occupation and industry
Data measure usual hourly and weekly earnings of wage and salary workers by occupation and by industry. See also Employment by occupation and industry.
Union earnings
Median weekly earnings for union and non-union full-time wage and salary workers are published annually. Occupation and industry detail is available and, additionally, demographic characteristics such as age, sex, race, and Hispanic ethnicity. See also Union members.
Working poor
Annual report on persons who, during the year, spent 27 weeks or more in the labor force (working or looking for work), but whose incomes still fell below the official poverty level.
IMPORTANT BLS discovered errors in some estimates in the Profile of the Working Poor series of reports for 2012 and earlier years.
Learn more about the errors and access corrected data.
Last Modified Date: December 2, 2016