For release 10:00 a.m. (EST) Thursday, January 21, 2010 USDL-10-0067
Technical information: (202) 691-6378 * cpsinfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/cps
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 * PressOffice@bls.gov
USUAL WEEKLY EARNINGS OF WAGE AND SALARY WORKERS
FOURTH QUARTER 2009
Median weekly earnings of the nation's 98.7 million full-time wage and salary
workers were $748 in the fourth quarter of 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta-
tistics reported today. This was 2.7 percent higher than a year earlier, com-
pared with a gain of 1.4 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban
Consumers (CPI-U) 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 fourth-quarter data are:
--Women who usually worked full time had median earnings of $670 per week,
or 81.2 percent of the $825 median for men. The female-to-male earnings
ratios were higher among blacks (93.4 percent) and Hispanics (86.6 per-
cent) than among whites (79.9 percent) or Asians (83.5 percent). (See
table 1.)
--Among the major race and ethnicity groups, median earnings for black
men working at full-time jobs were $653 per week, 76.8 percent of the
median for white men ($850). The difference was less among women, as
median earnings for black women ($610) were 89.8 percent of those for
white women ($679). Overall, median earnings of Hispanics who worked
full time ($547) were lower than those of blacks ($629), whites ($763),
and Asians ($877). (See table 1.)
--Usual weekly earnings of full-time workers varied by age. Among men,
those age 45 to 54 and age 55 to 64 had the highest median weekly
earnings, $967 and $953, respectively. Among women, weekly earnings
were highest for those age 55 to 64 ($750). (See table 2.)
--Among the major occupational groups, persons employed full time in
management, professional, and related occupations had the highest
median weekly earnings--$1,227 for men and $909 for women. Persons
employed in service jobs earned the least. (See table 3.)
--By educational attainment, full-time workers age 25 and over without
a high school diploma had median weekly earnings of $449, compared
with $638 for high school graduates (no college) and $1,121 for those
holding at least a bachelor's degree. Among college graduates with
advanced degrees (professional or master's degree and above), the
highest earning 10 percent of male workers made $3,342 or more per
week, compared with $2,156 or more for their female counterparts.
(See table 4.)
Annual Averages for 2008 and 2009
In addition to the data for the fourth quarter, this release includes 2008
and 2009 annual average weekly earnings for major demographic and occupa-
tional groups, and 2009 annual average data for educational attainment groups
(tables 6, 7, and 8). Annual average data on median usual earnings for men
and women by detailed occupational categories will appear in the January 2010
edition of Employment and Earnings Online at www.bls.gov/opub/ee/home.htm.
