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Women had higher median earnings than men in relatively few occupations in 2018

March 22, 2019

In 2018, women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median weekly earnings of $789. That was 81.1 percent of the $973 median for men who were full-time wage and salary workers. Women had lower median weekly earnings than men in most of the occupations for which we have earnings data for both women and men.
Median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by detailed occupation and sex, 2018 annual averages
Occupation Median weekly earnings for men Median weekly earnings for women Women's earnings as a percentage of men's

Total, full-time wage and salary workers

 $973 $789 81.1%

Chief executives

 2,488 1,736 69.8

General and operations managers

 1,427 1,139 79.8

Marketing and sales managers

 1,852 1,362 73.5

Computer and information systems managers

 1,920 1,727 89.9

Financial managers

 1,784 1,262 70.7

Human resources managers

 1,761 1,330 75.5

Industrial production managers

 1,573 1,296 82.4

Purchasing managers

 1,431 1,229 85.9

Construction managers

 1,467 1,202 81.9

Education administrators

 1,563 1,245 79.7

Food service managers

 922 708 76.8

Medical and health services managers

 1,729 1,331 77.0

Property, real estate, and community association managers

 1,148 927 80.7

Social and community service managers

 1,336 1,057 79.1

Wholesale and retail buyers, except farm products

 878 880 100.2

Purchasing agents, except wholesale, retail, and farm products

 1,209 1,032 85.4

Claims adjusters, appraisers, examiners, and investigators

 1,167 913 78.2

Compliance officers

 1,450 1,165 80.3

Human resources workers

 1,328 1,107 83.4

Management analysts

 1,642 1,437 87.5

Market research analysts and marketing specialists

 1,503 1,148 76.4

Accountants and auditors

 1,404 1,108 78.9

Financial analysts

 1,599 1,197 74.9

Personal financial advisors

 1,647 1,207 73.3

Insurance underwriters

 1,413 1,032 73.0

Credit counselors and loan officers

 1,443 948 65.7

Computer systems analysts

 1,647 1,246 75.7

Computer programmers

 1,662 1,445 86.9

Software developers, applications and systems software

 1,894 1,644 86.8

Computer support specialists

 1,114 1,015 91.1

Operations research analysts

 1,566 1,299 83.0

Architects, except naval

 1,538 1,301 84.6

Civil engineers

 1,551 1,282 82.7

Industrial engineers, including health and safety

 1,571 1,163 74.0

Engineering technicians, except drafters

 1,154 934 80.9

Medical scientists

 1,416 1,156 81.6

Miscellaneous life, physical, and social science technicians

 893 856 95.9

Counselors

 1,004 913 90.9

Social workers

 958 897 93.6

Clergy

 1,036 855 82.5

Lawyers

 2,202 1,762 80.0

Paralegals and legal assistants

 917 953 103.9

Postsecondary teachers

 1,603 1,253 78.2

Elementary and middle school teachers

 1,148 982 85.5

Secondary school teachers

 1,226 1,092 89.1

Other teachers and instructors

 1,095 840 76.7

Teacher assistants

 584 550 94.2

Designers

 1,169 932 79.7

Editors

 1,104 1,138 103.1

Pharmacists

 2,271 1,890 83.2

Physicians and surgeons

 2,513 1,677 66.7

Physical therapists

 1,410 1,387 98.4

Registered nurses

 1,271 1,156 91.0

Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians

 819 911 111.2

Diagnostic related technologists and technicians

 1,232 1,061 86.1

Emergency medical technicians and paramedics

 943 764 81.0

Health practitioner support technologists and technicians

 807 655 81.2

Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses

 936 743 79.4

Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides

 558 513 91.9

Bailiffs, correctional officers, and jailers

 811 646 79.7

Police and sheriff's patrol officers

 1,131 816 72.1

Security guards and gaming surveillance officers

 636 506 79.6

Chefs and head cooks

 624 562 90.1

First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers

 668 539 80.7

Cooks

 518 437 84.4

Food preparation workers

 486 446 91.8

Bartenders

 601 560 93.2

Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food

 410 475 115.9

Waiters and waitresses

 551 478 86.8

Dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers

 500 408 81.6

First-line supervisors of housekeeping and janitorial workers

 772 615 79.7

Janitors and building cleaners

 607 491 80.9

Maids and housekeeping cleaners

 559 457 81.8

Miscellaneous personal appearance workers

 615 512 83.3

Personal care aides

 555 493 88.8

Recreation and fitness workers

 724 543 75.0

First-line supervisors of retail sales workers

 911 672 73.8

First-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers

 1,199 1,054 87.9

Cashiers

 468 463 98.9

Retail salespersons

 764 543 71.1

Advertising sales agents

 950 1,053 110.8

Insurance sales agents

 1,048 809 77.2

Securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents

 1,639 1,047 63.9

Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing

 1,239 1,009 81.4

Real estate brokers and sales agents

 1,264 883 69.9

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

 1,050 835 79.5

Billing and posting clerks

 664 725 109.2

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

 778 739 95.0

Customer service representatives

 689 680 98.7

Receptionists and information clerks

 593 606 102.2

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks

 681 766 112.5

Dispatchers

 926 725 78.3

Postal service clerks

 758 771 101.7

Postal service mail carriers

 983 808 82.2

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

 1,004 790 78.7

Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks

 654 590 90.2

Stock clerks and order fillers

 558 570 102.2

Secretaries and administrative assistants

 903 753 83.4

Data entry keyers

 730 643 88.1

Office clerks, general

 670 701 104.6

Miscellaneous agricultural workers

 578 474 82.0

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

 1,050 745 71.0

Electrical, electronics, and electromechanical assemblers

 706 518 73.4

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

 723 583 80.6

Bakers

 565 533 94.3

Butchers and other meat, poultry, and fish processing workers

 632 557 88.1

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

 868 679 78.2

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

 602 496 82.4

Bus drivers

 735 599 81.5

Driver/sales workers and truck drivers

 829 559 67.4

Taxi drivers and chauffeurs

 628 450 71.7

Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand

 620 541 87.3

Packers and packagers, hand

 516 484 93.8

The gap between women’s and men’s earnings generally is larger in occupations with higher median earnings.

In 1979, the first year for which comparable earnings data are available, women’s median earnings were 62 percent of men’s. Most of the growth in women’s earnings compared with men’s occurred in the 1980s and 1990s. Since 2004, the women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio has remained in the 80 to 83 percent range.

These data are from the Current Population Survey.

For more data about women and wages, see our demographics and earnings pages.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Women had higher median earnings than men in relatively few occupations in 2018 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2019/women-had-higher-median-earnings-than-men-in-relatively-few-occupations-in-2018.htm (visited October 08, 2024).

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