In 2022, New Jersey women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median usual weekly earnings of $1,072, or 83.5 percent of the $1,284 median usual weekly earnings of their male counterparts, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Alexandra Hall Bovee noted that the 2022 women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio of 83.5 percent compared to 79.5 percent in 2021. Nationwide, women earned $958 per week, or 83.0 percent of men’s earnings ($1,154). (See chart 1 and table 1.) The earnings comparisons in this release are on a broad level and do not control for many factors that can be important in explaining earnings differences, such as job skills and responsibilities, work experience, and specialization.

In New Jersey, the women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio has ranged from a low of 74.3 percent in 2004 to a high of 84.8 percent in 2010. (Data for the states began in 1997.)   

  

View Chart Data

Chart 1. Women's earnings as a percentage of men's, full-time wage and salary workers, the United States and New Jersey, 2012–22 annual averages

Year	New Jersey	United States
2012	79.4	80.9
2013	79.5	82.1
2014	76.8	82.5
2015	83.2	81.1
2016	80.3	81.9
2017	81.6	81.8
2018	81.3	81.1
2019	79.3	81.5
2020	82.2	82.3
2021	79.5	83.1
2022	83.5	83.0

Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, median weekly earnings of women in full-time wage and salary positions in 2022 ranged from $751 in Mississippi to $1,626 in the District of Columbia. Women’s earnings in 12 states and the District of Columbia exceeded $1,050 per week. (See map 1.)

Median weekly earnings for men were lowest in Mississippi at $906 and highest in the District of Columbia at $1,876. Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia had weekly wages above $1,050 for full-time male workers.

Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Rhode Island had the highest women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio, 99.6 percent. Utah had the lowest earnings ratio, 73.1 percent. (See map 2.) The differences among the states reflect, in part, variation in the occupations and industries found in each state and differences in the demographic composition of each state’s labor force. In addition, sampling error for state estimates is considerably larger than it is for the national estimates. Consequently, earnings comparisons between states should be made with caution.

The estimates in this release were obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), which provides information on the labor force, employment, and unemployment. The survey is conducted monthly for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the U.S. Census Bureau using a scientifically selected national sample of about 60,000 eligible households representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey data on earnings are based on one-fourth of the CPS monthly sample and are limited to wage and salary workers. All self-employed workers, both incorporated and unincorporated, are excluded from the data presented in this release.

Readers should be aware that, because of sampling error, apparent differences between estimates for two or more groups or categories may not be statistically significant, and therefore not meaningfully different from one another. Standard errors are shown with many of the median earnings estimates in this report to help readers evaluate differences in earnings estimates.

For more information on the median weekly earnings of women and men, see Bureau of Labor Statistics Report 1108, Highlights of women’s earnings in 2022 and Technical Notes.

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