Median weekly earnings of the 104.3 million full-time wage and salary workers in the United States were $796 in the first quarter of 2014.
This was 3.0% higher than last year, compared with a gain of 1.4 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This data is collected as part of the Current Population Survey, a sample survey of U.S. households in which survey takers are asked questions such as how much each worker usually earns.
Some highlights from the BLS survey:
- Median weekly earnings were $796 in the first quarter of 2014. Women who usually worked full time had median weekly earnings of $722, or 82.8 percent of the $872 median for men.
- The women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio varied by race and ethnicity. White women earned 82.4 percent as much as their male counterparts, compared with black women (85.6 percent), Asian women (83.8 percent), and Hispanic women (92.6 percent).
- Among the major race and ethnicity groups, median weekly earnings for black men working at full-time jobs were $708 per week, or 78.8 percent of the median for white men ($898). The difference was less among women, as black women’s median earnings ($606) were 81.9 percent of those for white women ($740). Overall, median earnings of Hispanics who worked full time ($593) were lower than those of blacks ($646), whites ($819), and Asians ($955).