News Markets Media

USA | Europe | Asia | World| Stocks | Commodities

Home News USA U.S. Usual Weekly Earnings in the Fourth Quarter of 2009


U.S. Usual Weekly Earnings in the Fourth Quarter of 2009
added: 2010-01-22

Median weekly earnings of the nation's 98.7 million full-time wage and salary workers were $748 in the fourth quarter of 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. This was 2.7 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 1.4 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over the same period.

Data on usual weekly earnings are collected as part of the Current Population Survey, a nationwide sample survey of households in which respondents are asked, among other things, how much each wage and salary worker usually earns. Highlights from the fourth-quarter data are:

- Women who usually worked full time had median earnings of $670 per week, or 81.2 percent of the $825 median for men. The female-to-male earnings ratios were higher among blacks (93.4 percent) and Hispanics (86.6 percent) than among whites (79.9 percent) or Asians(83.5 percent).

- Among the major race and ethnicity groups, median earnings for black men working at full-time jobs were $653 per week, 76.8 percent of the median for white men ($850). The difference was less among women, as median earnings for black women ($610) were 89.8 percent of those for white women ($679). Overall, median earnings of Hispanics who worked full time ($547) were lower than those of blacks ($629), whites ($763), and Asians ($877).

- Usual weekly earnings of full-time workers varied by age. Among men, those age 45 to 54 and age 55 to 64 had the highest median weekly earnings, $967 and $953, respectively. Among women, weekly earnings were highest for those age 55 to 64 ($750).

- Among the major occupational groups, persons employed full time in management, professional, and related occupations had the highest median weekly earnings - $1,227 for men and $909 for women. Persons employed in service jobs earned the least.

- By educational attainment, full-time workers age 25 and over without a high school diploma had median weekly earnings of $449, compared with $638 for high school graduates (no college) and $1,121 for those holding at least a bachelor's degree. Among college graduates with advanced degrees (professional or master's degree and above), the highest earning 10 percent of male workers made $3,342 or more per week, compared with $2,156 or more for their female counterparts.


Source: U.S. Department of Labor

Privacy policy . Copyright . Contact .