Technical information: (202) 691-6378 USDL 09-0390
http://www.bls.gov/cps/
For release: 10:00 A.M. (EDT)
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 Thursday, April 16, 2009
USUAL WEEKLY EARNINGS OF WAGE AND SALARY WORKERS:
FIRST QUARTER 2009
Median weekly earnings of the nation's 100.4 million full-time wage
and salary workers were $738 in the first quarter of 2009, the Bureau
of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.
This was 2.6 percent higher than a year earlier. The Consumer Price
Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) was unchanged 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. (See the Technical Note.) Highlights
from the first-quarter data are:
--Women who usually worked full time had median earnings of $649
per week, or 78.9 percent of the $823 median for men. The fe-
male-to-male earnings ratios were higher among blacks (93.9 per-
cent) and Hispanics (88.4 percent) than among whites (77.9 per-
cent) or Asians (81.3 percent). (See table 1.)
--Median earnings for black men working at full-time jobs were $595
per week, 69.6 percent of the median for white men ($855). The
difference was less among women, as black women's median earnings
($559) were 83.9 percent of those for their white counterparts
($666). Overall, median earnings of Hispanics who worked full
time ($545) were lower than those of blacks ($577), whites ($758),
and Asians ($869). (See table 1.)
--Among men, those age 45 to 54 and age 55 to 64 had the highest
median weekly earnings, $994 and $962, respectively. Among women,
weekly earnings also were highest for those age 45 to 54 and age
55 to 64, $705 and $728, respectively. (See table 2.)
--Among the major occupational groups, persons employed full time in
management, professional, and related occupations had the highest
median weekly earnings--$1,258 for men and $907 for women. Per-
sons employed in service jobs earned the least. (See table 3.)
--Full-time workers age 25 and over without a high school diploma
had median weekly earnings of $450, compared with $620 for high
school graduates (no college) and $1,138 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 $3,224 or more per week,
compared with $2,092 or more for their female counterparts. (See
table 4.)
