November 04, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Part-time workers: who they are and how much they earn

Women who worked part time—that is, fewer than 35 hours per week—made up 25 percent of all female wage and salary workers in 2003. In contrast, just 11 percent of men in wage and salary jobs worked part time.

Median usual weekly earnings of part-time wage and salary workers by age and sex, 2003 annual averages
[Chart data—TXT]

Median weekly earnings of female part-time workers were $197, compared with $180 for male part-time workers.

Among part-time workers, men had lower earnings than women because male part-timers tend to be highly concentrated in the youngest age groups, which typically have low earnings. Over half of male part-time workers were 16 to 24 years old, compared with about 30 percent of female part-timers.

These data on earnings are produced by the Current Population Survey. For more information see "Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2003," BLS Report 978 (PDF 208K).

 

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