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Weekly earnings by educational attainment in first quarter 2016
May 11, 2016
Full-time workers age 25 and older without a high school diploma had median weekly earnings of $494 in the first quarter of 2016. That compares with a median of $679 for high school graduates who never attended college and $782 for workers with some college or an associate degree. Median weekly earnings were $1,155 for workers with a bachelor's degree and $1,435 for workers with an advanced degree—a master’s, professional, or doctoral degree.
Selected percentiles of usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers age 25 and older, first quarter 2016
Characteristic
10th percentile
50th percentile (median)
90th percentile
Total
$409
$878
$2,091
Men
435
963
2,322
Women
389
779
1,765
Total, less than a high school diploma
315
494
957
Men, less than a high school diploma
334
526
1,031
Women, less than a high school diploma
290
415
696
Total, high school graduates, no college
377
679
1,408
Men, high school graduates, no college
401
751
1,544
Women, high school graduates, no college
339
596
1,111
Total, some college or associate degree
416
782
1,623
Men, some college or associate degree
459
893
1,858
Women, some college or associate degree
395
689
1,327
Total, bachelor's degree only
555
1,155
2,507
Men, bachelor's degree only
605
1,344
2,896
Women, bachelor's degree only
504
1,006
2,016
Total, advanced degree
695
1,435
3,120
Men, advanced degree
773
1,705
3,871
Women, advanced degree
642
1,232
2,409
Note: Ten percent of full-time wage and salary workers earn less than the upper limit of the 10th percentile; 50 percent earn less than the upper limit of the 50th percentile, or median; 90 percent earn less than the upper limit of the 90th percentile.
Among college graduates with advanced degrees, the highest earning 10 percent of men—whose earnings were at or above the 90th percentile—made $3,871 or more per week; the 90th percentile for women with advanced degrees was $2,409 or more. Weekly earnings for the lowest paid 10 percent of men with advanced degrees—whose earnings were below the 10th percentile—were less than $773 in the first quarter. That was slightly higher than the median earnings—the 50th percentile—of men who had completed high school but never attended college.
These data are from the Current Population Survey and are not seasonally adjusted. To learn more, see “Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers: First Quarter 2016” (HTML) (PDF). Full-time workers usually work 35 hours or more per week at their sole or main job.
United States Department of Labor
