Median weekly earnings by age, sex, race, and ethnicity, third quarter 2012

October 19, 2012

Median weekly earnings of the nation's 103.6 million full-time wage and salary workers were $758 in the third quarter of 2012, not seasonally adjusted. Usual weekly earnings of full-time workers varied by age. Among men, those age 45 to 54 and 55 to 64 had the highest median weekly earnings, $976 and $980, respectively.

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Usual weekly earnings were highest for women age 35 to 64; weekly earnings were $740 for women age 35 to 44, $754 for women age 45 to 54, and $766 for women age 55 to 64.

Among the major race and ethnicity groups, median weekly earnings for black men working at full-time jobs were $633 per week, or 74.1 percent of the median for white men ($854). The difference was less among women, as black women's median earnings ($590) were 82.9 percent of those for white women ($712).

The female-to-male earnings ratio varied by race and ethnicity. White women earned 83.4 percent as much as their male counterparts, compared with black (93.2 percent), Hispanic (87.5 percent), and Asian women (73.1 percent).

These data are from the Current Population Survey. For more information, see "Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers — Third Quarter 2012" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-12-2072. Full-time workers are those who usually work 35 hours or more per week at their sole or principal job.