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In 2017, the 50 million women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median weekly earnings of $770, while their 63 million male counterparts had median weekly earnings of $941. Women working in management; life, physical, and social science; legal; computer and mathematical; and architecture and engineering occupations had the highest median weekly earnings, ranging from $1,173 in management to $1,307 in architecture and engineering occupations. Median weekly earnings for men working in these occupations ranged from $1,361 in life, physical, and social science occupations to $1,896 in legal occupations. Earnings comparisons are on a broad level and do not control for many factors that can be significant in explaining earnings differences, such as job skills and responsibilities, work experience, and specialization.
Occupation | Number of workers, women | Median weekly earnings, women | Number of workers, men | Median weekly earnings, men | Number of workers, total | Median weekly earnings, total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total, full-time wage and salary workers |
50,291,000 | $770 | 62,980,000 | $941 | 113,272,000 | $860 |
Management occupations |
5,600,000 | 1173 | 7,568,000 | 1573 | 13,169,000 | 1392 |
Business and financial operations occupations |
3,398,000 | 1055 | 2,847,000 | 1390 | 6,245,000 | 1174 |
Computer and mathematical occupations |
1,110,000 | 1235 | 3,240,000 | 1552 | 4,350,000 | 1465 |
Architecture and engineering occupations |
442,000 | 1307 | 2,494,000 | 1518 | 2,936,000 | 1478 |
Life, physical, and social science occupations |
564,000 | 1183 | 674,000 | 1361 | 1,238,000 | 1286 |
Community and social service occupations |
1,418,000 | 857 | 747,000 | 976 | 2,165,000 | 900 |
Legal occupations |
811,000 | 1192 | 568,000 | 1896 | 1,379,000 | 1443 |
Education, training, and library occupations |
5,039,000 | 935 | 1,939,000 | 1202 | 6,978,000 | 1002 |
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations |
765,000 | 943 | 1,013,000 | 1161 | 1,778,000 | 1066 |
Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations |
5,246,000 | 1068 | 1,724,000 | 1341 | 6,970,000 | 1124 |
Healthcare support occupations |
2,180,000 | 533 | 320,000 | 597 | 2,500,000 | 542 |
Protective service occupations |
535,000 | 690 | 2,204,000 | 894 | 2,739,000 | 852 |
Food preparation and serving related occupations |
2,106,000 | 459 | 2,359,000 | 502 | 4,465,000 | 484 |
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations |
1,268,000 | 463 | 2,373,000 | 573 | 3,641,000 | 522 |
Personal care and service occupations |
1,971,000 | 503 | 728,000 | 612 | 2,699,000 | 520 |
Sales and related occupations |
4,355,000 | 609 | 5,598,000 | 934 | 9,953,000 | 763 |
Office and administrative support occupations |
9,850,000 | 691 | 3,884,000 | 735 | 13,733,000 | 701 |
Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations |
206,000 | 471 | 756,000 | 585 | 962,000 | 539 |
Construction and extraction occupations |
160,000 | 802 | 5,987,000 | 796 | 6,147,000 | 796 |
Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations |
149,000 | 736 | 4,251,000 | 883 | 4,400,000 | 878 |
Production occupations |
2,044,000 | 564 | 5,545,000 | 769 | 7,589,000 | 701 |
Transportation and material moving occupations |
1,075,000 | 514 | 6,160,000 | 710 | 7,236,000 | 681 |
Median weekly earnings of women were lowest in food preparation and serving related ($459); building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($463); and farming, fishing, and forestry occupations ($471). Men's weekly earnings in these occupations were $502, $573, and $585, respectively.
Women and men had median weekly earnings that were most similar in food preparation and serving related occupations, office and administrative support, and construction and extraction occupations.
The greatest differences in median weekly earnings of women and men were in legal occupations ($1,192 for women and $1,896 men) and sales and related occupations ($609 and $934).
Over 2 million women worked in healthcare support occupations, with median weekly earnings of $533, compared with about half a million men, who had median weekly earnings of $597. About 150,000 women worked in installation, maintenance, with median weekly earnings of $736. In contrast, over 4 million men worked in these occupations, with weekly earnings of $883.
Half of all female full-time wage and salary workers were in education, training, and library; healthcare practitioners and technical; management, and office and administrative support occupations. The occupations employing the most men were production; sales and related; construction and extraction; transportation and material moving; and management occupations.
These data are from the Current Population Survey. More statistics of women's employment and earnings can be accessed from CPS: Demographics. Median earnings are the middle value when earnings are arranged from lowest to highest. Half of workers earn more, and half earn less, than the median earnings estimate.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Median weekly earnings of women $770 in 2017 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/median-weekly-earnings-of-women-770-in-2017.htm (visited March 15, 2025).