Median weekly earnings $1,098 for women, $1,362 for men, first quarter 2026

Median weekly earnings of the nation's 121 million full-time wage and salary workers were $1,235 in the first quarter of 2026. This was 3.4 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 2.7 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over the same period.

Women had median weekly earnings of $1,098, or 80.6 percent of the $1,362 median for men. Among the major race and ethnicity groups, median earnings of full-time workers who are Hispanic ($984) or Black ($985) were lower than those who are White ($1,263) or Asian ($1,589). 

Among male workers, median weekly earnings for Black men ($1,016) were 72.6 percent of the median for White men ($1,400). Median earnings for Hispanic men ($1,054) were 75.3 percent of the median for White men.

The difference was less among women, as Black women's median earnings ($956) were 85.4 percent of those for White women ($1,119), and earnings for Hispanic women ($901) were 80.5 percent of those for White women. Earnings of Asian men ($1,847) and women ($1,449) were higher than those of their White counterparts.

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 2026" and more charts of usual weekly earnings data. Full-time workers usually work 35 hours or more per week at their sole or main job. The median is the midpoint in the earnings distribution; half of workers earn more than the median and half earn less.