Median weekly earnings by educational attainment, third quarter 2026

Median weekly earnings of the nation’s 110.9 million full-time wage and salary workers age 25 and over were $1,307 in the third quarter of 2026. This was 2.0 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 3.5 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over the same period. 

In the third quarter of 2026, full-time workers age 25 and over without a high school diploma had median weekly earnings of $819, up from $777 the previous year but still lower than earnings for high school graduates with no college education ($993), those with some college or an associate degree ($1,140), and college graduates holding at least a bachelor's degree ($1,752). 

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: Third 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.