For release 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Wednesday, July 18, 2012                  USDL-12-1419

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


            USUAL WEEKLY EARNINGS OF WAGE AND SALARY WORKERS
                           SECOND QUARTER 2012              


Median weekly earnings of the nation's 102.8 million full-time wage and salary 
workers were $771 in the second quarter of 2012 (not seasonally adjusted), 
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This was 2.4 percent higher 
than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 1.9 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 release are not seasonally adjusted 
unless otherwise specified. Highlights from the second-quarter data are as 
follows:

   --Seasonally adjusted median weekly earnings were $773 in the
     second quarter of 2012, little changed from the previous quarter
     ($763). (See table 1.)

   --On a not seasonally adjusted basis, median weekly earnings were $771 
     in the second quarter of 2012. Women who usually worked full time
     had median weekly earnings of $689, or 79.7 percent of the $865 median
     for men. (See table 2.)

   --The female-to-male earnings ratio varied by race and ethnicity.
     Black women earned 92.2 percent as much as their male counterparts,
     compared with Hispanic (87.5 percent), white (78.7 percent), and Asian
     women (70.6 percent). (See table 2.)

   --Among the major race and ethnicity groups, median weekly earnings
     for black men working full time were $668, or 75.0 percent of the 
     median for white men ($891). The difference was smaller among
     women, as black women's median weekly earnings ($616) were 87.9
     percent of those for white women ($701). Overall, median weekly
     earnings of Hispanics who worked full time ($576) were lower than
     those of blacks ($637), whites ($792), and Asians ($930). (See
     table 2.)

   --Usual weekly earnings of full-time workers varied by age. Among
     both men and women, median weekly earnings tend to be higher in the
     older age groups. Men between the ages of 45 to 54 had median weekly
     earnings of $1,003, about the same as the median for men age 55 to 64
     ($1,015). Usual weekly earnings were highest for women age 35 to 64;
     weekly earnings were $749 for women age 35 to 44, $733 for women age
     45 to 54, and $760 for women age 55 to 64. Workers age 16 to 24 had
     the lowest median weekly earnings, at $429. (See table 3.)

   --Among the major occupational groups, persons employed full time
     in management, professional, and related occupations had the highest
     median weekly earnings--$1,342 for men and $945 for women. Men and
     women employed in service jobs earned the least, $529 and $435,
     respectively. (See table 4.)

   --By educational attainment, full-time workers age 25 and over without 
     a high school diploma had median weekly earnings of $483, compared 
     with $659 for high school graduates (no college) and $1,164 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 $3,481 or more per 
     week, compared with $2,304 or more for their female counterparts. 
     (See table 5.)

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 households, with coverage in all 50 states
and the District of Columbia. The earnings data are collected from one-quarter
of the CPS monthly sample and are limited to wage and salary workers (both
incorporated and unincorporated self-employed are excluded). The data, there-
fore, exclude self-employment income.

   Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired
individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay
Service: (800) 877-8339.

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 exact difference, or sampling error, varies depending on
the particular sample selected, and this variability is measured by the stan-
dard 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 errors can
occur for many reasons, including the failure to sample a segment of the popu-
lation, inability to obtain information for all respondents in the sample,
inability or unwillingness of respondents to provide correct information on a
timely basis, mistakes made by respondents, and errors made in the collection
or processing of the data.

   A full discussion of the reliability of data from the Current Population
Survey and information on estimating standard errors is available on the BLS
website www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm#reliability.

Definitions

   The principal definitions used in connection with the earnings series 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, 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 equi-
valent. The term "usual" is as perceived by the respondent. 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 amount that divides a given earnings distribution into
two equal groups, one having earnings above the median and the other 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 estimation procedure places each reported or calculated weekly earnings value
into $50-wide intervals that are centered around multiples of $50. The actual value
is estimated through the linear interpolation of the interval in which the quantile
boundary lies.

   Over-the-year changes 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: (1) There
could be a change in the relative weights of the subgroups. For example, the medians
of both 16- to 24-year-olds and those 25 years and over may rise; but if the lower-
earning 16- to 24-year-olds 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
could be caused by survey observations that are clustered at rounded values, such as
$250, $300, or $400. 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.

   Wage and salary workers. 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, excludes all self-
employed persons, regardless of whether or not their businesses are incorporated.

   Full-time workers. Workers who usually work 35 hours or more per week at their
sole or principal job.

   Part-time workers. Workers who usually work fewer than 35 hours per week at their
sole or principal job.

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

   Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. Refers to persons who identified themselves in the
enumeration process as being of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin. Persons whose 
ethnicity is identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race.

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 season-
ally 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 sea-
sonal adjustment is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm#sa.