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Earnings by educational attainment and sex, 1979 and 2002

[Chart data—TXT]

Among men, high school dropouts had earnings of $421 a week, compared with $1,089 for college graduates. 

At all levels of education, women have fared better than men with respect to earnings growth over the 1979 to 2002 period. 

Although both women and men with less than a high school diploma have experienced a decline in inflation-adjusted earnings since 1979, women’s earnings have fallen significantly less—from $348 to $323 (down 7.2 percent), compared with a 27.2 percent drop from $578 to $421 for men. 

Earnings for women with college degrees have increased by one-third from $605 to $809 since 1979 on an inflation-adjusted basis, while those of male college graduates have risen by only one-fifth from $908 to $1,089.

These data come from the Current Population Survey. For more information, see “Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2002,” BLS Report 972 (PDF 188K). Earnings data in this article are annual average median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers 25 years of age and older expressed in constant 2002 dollars.

Related TED articles: 

• Differences in women's and men’s earnings by race and Hispanic origin
• Women’s earnings 78 percent of men’s in 2002