For release 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Tuesday, April 21, 2015                                     USDL-15-0688

Technical information:  (202) 691-6378  •  cpsinfo@bls.gov  •  www.bls.gov/cps
Media contact:          (202) 691-5902  •  PressOffice@bls.gov


(NOTE: The Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers news releases for the
first, second, and third quarters of 2015 were reissued on Tuesday, November 10,
2015, to correct errors in table 1 of the release. An incorrect price index was
used to compute seasonally adjusted median weekly earnings in constant dollars for
total, men, and women, affecting data for first quarter 2010 through the third
quarter 2015. These estimates have been recalculated using the correct price
index. No other series in the usual weekly earnings news release were affected
by the error.)     

     
     USUAL WEEKLY EARNINGS OF WAGE AND SALARY WORKERS  --  FIRST QUARTER 2015


Median weekly earnings of the nation's 107.2 million full-time wage and salary workers were $808 in 
the first quarter of 2015 (not seasonally adjusted), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. 
This was 1.5 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a decline of 0.1 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 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.) Data shown in this news release are not seasonally 
adjusted unless otherwise specified. Highlights from the first-quarter data include:

•	Median weekly earnings of full-time workers were $808 in the first quarter of 2015. Women 
        had median usual weekly earnings of $730, or 81.6 percent of the $895 median for men. 
        (See table 2.) 

•	The women's-to-men's earnings ratio varied by race and ethnicity. White women earned 81.3 
        percent as much as their male counterparts, compared with black women (88.5 percent), Asian 
        women (79.7 percent), and Hispanic women (89.4 percent). (See table 2.)

•	Among the major race and ethnicity groups, median weekly earnings for black men working at 
        full-time jobs were $694 per week, or 75.6 percent of the median for white men ($918). The 
        difference was less among women, as black women's median earnings ($614) were 82.3 percent 
        of those for white women ($746). Overall, median earnings of Hispanics who worked full time 
        ($590) were lower than those of blacks ($650), whites ($835), and Asians ($966). 
        (See table 2.) 

•	Usual weekly earnings of full-time workers varied by age. Among men, median weekly earnings 
        were highest for those age 45 to 54 ($1,039) and 55 to 64 ($1,038). Usual weekly earnings 
        were highest for women age 35 to 64: weekly earnings were $796 for women age 35 to 44, $811 
        for women age 45 to 54, and $777 for women age 55 to 64. Workers age 16 to 24 had the lowest 
        median weekly earnings, at $480. (See table 3.) 

•	Among the major occupational groups, persons employed full time in management, professional, 
        and related occupations had the highest median weekly earnings--$1,372 for men and $988 for 
        women. Men and women employed in service jobs earned the least, $575 and $461, respectively. 
        (See table 4.) 

•	By educational attainment, full-time workers age 25 and over without a high school diploma 
        had median weekly earnings of $478, compared with $669 for high school graduates (no college) 
        and $1,227 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 $3,862 or more per week, compared with $2,420 or more for their female 
        counterparts. (See table 5.) 

•	Seasonally adjusted median weekly earnings were $802 in the first quarter of 2015, little 
        changed from the previous quarter ($796). (See table 1.) 


   ____________________________________________________________________________________________________
  |                                                                                                    |
  |                   Revision of Seasonally Adjusted Usual Weekly Earnings Data                       |
  |                                                                                                    |
  |Seasonally adjusted data for median usual weekly earnings in constant (1982-84) dollars have been   |
  |updated using revised seasonally adjusted data for the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers |
  |(CPI-U). (Data are shown in table 1 of the release.) Seasonally adjusted constant (1982-84) dollar  |
  |estimates back to the first quarter of 2010 were subject to revision.                               |
  |____________________________________________________________________________________________________|

Technical Note


   The estimates in this release were obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS),
which provides basic information on the labor force, employment, and unemployment. The
survey is conducted monthly for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the U.S. Census
Bureau using a scientifically selected national sample of about 60,000 eligible house-
holds, with coverage in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The earnings data
are collected from one-fourth of the CPS monthly sample and are limited to wage and
salary workers. All self-employed workers, both incorporated and unincorporated, are
excluded from CPS earnings estimates.

   Material in this news release is in the public domain and may be used without
permission. This information is available to sensory impaired individuals upon
request. Voice telephone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Definitions

   The principal definitions used in connection with the earnings data in this news
release are described briefly below.

   Usual weekly earnings. Data represent earnings before taxes and other deductions and
include any overtime pay, commissions, or tips usually received (at the main job in the
case of multiple jobholders). Prior to 1994, respondents were asked how much they
usually earned per week. Since January 1994, respondents have been asked to identify
the easiest way for them to report earnings (hourly, weekly, biweekly, twice monthly,
monthly, annually, or other) and how much they usually earn in the reported time period.

   Earnings reported on a basis other than weekly are converted to a weekly equivalent.
The term "usual" is determined by each respondent's own understanding of the term. If
the respondent asks for a definition of "usual," interviewers are instructed to define
the term as more than half the weeks worked during the past 4 or 5 months.

   Medians (and other quantiles) of weekly earnings. The median (or upper limit of the
second quartile) is the midpoint in a given earnings distribution, with half of workers
having earnings above the median and the other half having earnings below the median.
Ten percent of a given distribution have earnings below the upper limit of the first
decile (90 percent have higher earnings), 25 percent have earnings below the upper limit
of the first quartile (75 percent have higher earnings), 75 percent have earnings below
the upper limit of the third quartile (25 percent have higher earnings), and 90 percent
have earnings below the upper limit of the ninth decile (10 percent have higher earnings).

   The BLS procedure for estimating the median of an earnings distribution places each 
reported or calculated weekly earnings value into a $50-wide interval that is centered
around a multiple of $50. The median is calculated through the linear interpolation of 
the interval in which the median lies.

   Changes over time in the medians (and other quantile boundaries) for specific groups
may not necessarily be consistent with the movements estimated for the overall quantile
boundary. The most common reasons for this possible anomaly are as follows: (1) there
could be a change in the relative weights of the subgroups. For example, the median of
16- to 24-year-olds and the median earnings of those 25 years and over may rise, but if
the lower earning 16-to-24 age group accounts for a greatly increased share of the
total, the overall median could actually fall. (2) there could be a large change in the
shape of the distribution of reported earnings, particularly near a quantile boundary.
This change could be caused by survey observations that are clustered at rounded values,
such as $400 or $500. An estimate lying in a $50-wide centered interval containing such
a cluster or "spike" tends to change more slowly than one in other intervals.

   Constant dollars. The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) is used
to convert current dollars to constant (1982-84) dollars.

   Wage and salary workers. These are workers who receive wages, salaries, commissions,
tips, payment in kind, or piece rates. The group includes employees in both the private
and public sectors but, for the purposes of the earnings series, it excludes all self-
employed persons, both those with incorporated businesses and those with unincorporated
businesses.

   Full-time workers. For the purpose of producing estimates of earnings, workers who
usually work 35 hours or more per week at their sole or principal job are defined as
working full time.

   Part-time workers. For the purpose of producing estimates of earnings, workers who
usually work fewer than 35 hours per week at their sole or principal job are defined as
working part time.

   Race. In the survey process, race is determined by the household respondent. In
accordance with the Office of Management and Budget guidelines, white, black or African
American, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific 
Islander are terms used to describe a person's race. Estimates for the latter two race
groups and persons who selected more than one race are not included in this release due
to insufficient sample size.

   Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. This refers to people who identified themselves in the
survey process as being of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin. People whose ethnicity
is identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race.

Reliability

   Statistics based on the CPS are subject to both sampling and nonsampling error. When a
sample, rather than the entire population, is surveyed, there is a chance that the sample
estimates may differ from the true population values they represent. The component of
this difference that occurs because samples differ by chance is known as sampling error,
and its variability is measured by the standard error of the estimate. There is about a
90-percent chance, or level of confidence, that an estimate based on a sample will differ
by no more than 1.6 standard errors from the true population value because of sampling
error. BLS analyses are generally conducted at the 90-percent level of confidence. 

   The CPS data also are affected by nonsampling error. Nonsampling error can occur for
many reasons, including the failure to sample a segment of the population, inability
to obtain information for all respondents in the sample, inability or unwillingness of
respondents to provide correct information, and errors made in the collection or
processing of the data.

   Additional information about the reliability of data from the CPS is available on the
BLS website at www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm#reliability.

Seasonal adjustment

   Over the course of a year, the size of the nation's labor force and other measures
of labor market activity undergo regularly occurring fluctuations. These recurring
events include seasonal changes in weather, major holidays, and the opening and closing
of schools. The effect of such seasonal variations can be very large.

   Because seasonal events follow a more or less regular pattern each year, their
influence on the level of a series can be tempered by adjusting for regular seasonal
variation. These adjustments make nonseasonal developments easier to spot. The
seasonally adjusted figures provide a more useful tool with which to analyze changes
in quarter-to-quarter activity.

   At the end of each calendar year, the seasonally adjusted data are revised for the past
5 years when the seasonal adjustment factors are updated. More information on seasonal
adjustment is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm#sa.