Technical information:(202) 691-6378    USDL 08-0507
             http://www.bls.gov/cps/
                                        For release:  10:00 A.M. (EDT)
Media contact:        (202) 691-5902    Thursday, April 17, 2008


             USUAL WEEKLY EARNINGS OF WAGE AND SALARY WORKERS:
                            FIRST QUARTER 2008

   Median weekly earnings of the nation’s 106.5 million full-time wage and
salary workers were $719 in the first quarter of 2008, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.  This was 3.8 per-
cent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 4.1 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 Popula-
tion 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 $637 per
      week, or 80.6 percent of the $790 median for men.  The female-to-
      male earnings ratios were higher among Hispanics (93.1 percent)
      and blacks (92.1 percent) than among whites (79.3 percent) or
      Asians (80.3 percent).  (See table 1.)

    --Median earnings for black men working at full-time jobs were $604
      per week, 73.5 percent of the median for white men ($822).  The dif-
      ference was less among women, as black women’s median earnings ($556)
      were 85.3 percent of those for their white counterparts ($652).  Over-
      all, median earnings of Hispanics who worked full time ($520) were
      lower than those of blacks ($582), whites ($742), and Asians ($842).
      (See table 1.)

    --Among men, those age 45 to 54 and age 55 to 64 had the highest median
       weekly earnings, $927 and $957, respectively.  Among women, weekly
       earnings also were highest for those age 45 to 54 and age 55 to 64,
       $700 and $702, respectively.  (See table 2.)

     --Among the major occupational groups, persons employed full time in
       managerial, professional, and related occupations had the highest
       median weekly earnings--$1,236 for men and $890 for women.  Men and
       women 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 $435, compared with $615 for high school
       graduates (no college) and $1,108 for those holding at least a bachelor’s
       degree.  Among college graduates with advanced degrees (professional or
       master’s degree and above), the highest 10 percent of male workers made
       $3,080 or more per week, compared with $1,988 or more for their female
       counterparts.  (See table 4.)