Median weekly earnings $783 for women, $965 for men, in first quarter 2018

Median weekly earnings of the nation's 113.4 million full-time wage and salary workers were $881 in the first quarter of 2018. That was 1.8 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 2.2 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over the same period. Women had median weekly earnings of $783, or 81.1 percent of the $965 median for men.

The women's-to-men's earnings ratio varied by age. The ratio was highest for younger workers in the first quarter of 2018: 92.1 percent among workers ages 16 to 19 and 97.8 percent among workers ages 20 to 24. The ratio was lowest for workers ages 45 to 54 (76.3 percent), 55 to 64 (74.3 percent), and 65 and older (75.3 percent).

These data are from the Current Population Survey and are not seasonally adjusted. For more information, see "Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers: First Quarter 2018" (HTML) (PDF). The earnings comparisons in this report do not control for job skills and responsibilities, work experience, specialization, or other possible causes of earnings differences. The median is the midpoint in the earnings distribution; half of workers earn more than the median and half earn less.