Graph and download economic data for Employed full time: Median usual weekly real earnings: Wage and salary workers: 16 years and over (LES1252881600Q) from Q1 1979 to Q2 2025 about full-time, salaries, workers, earnings, 16 years +, wages, median, real, employment, and USA.

In March 2025, inflation amounted to 2.4 percent, while wages grew by 4.3 percent. The inflation rate has not exceeded the rate of wage growth since January 2023. Inflation in 2022 The high rates of inflation in 2022 meant that the real terms value of American wages took a hit. Many Americans report feelings of concern over the economy and a worsening of their financial situation. The inflation situation in the United States is one that was experienced globally in 2022, mainly due to COVID-19 related supply chain constraints and disruption due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The monthly inflation rate for the U.S. reached a 40-year high in June 2022 at 9.1 percent, and annual inflation for 2022 reached eight percent. Without appropriate wage increases, Americans will continue to see a decline in their purchasing power. Wages in the U.S. Despite the level of wage growth reaching 6.7 percent in the summer of 2022, it has not been enough to curb the impact of even higher inflation rates. The federally mandated minimum wage in the United States has not increased since 2009, meaning that individuals working minimum wage jobs have taken a real terms pay cut for the last twelve years. There are discrepancies between states - the minimum wage in California can be as high as 15.50 U.S. dollars per hour, while a business in Oklahoma may be as low as two U.S. dollars per hour. However, even the higher wage rates in states like California and Washington may be lacking - one analysis found that if minimum wage had kept up with productivity, the minimum hourly wage in the U.S. should have been 22.88 dollars per hour in 2021. Additionally, the impact of decreased purchasing power due to inflation will impact different parts of society in different ways with stark contrast in average wages due to both gender and race.

In 2023, the usual median hourly rate of a worker's wage in the United States was 19.24 U.S. dollars, a decrease from the previous year. Dollar value is based on 2023 U.S. dollars. In 1979, the median hourly earnings in the U.S. was 17.48 dollars.

When adjusted for inflation, the 2024 federal minimum wage in the United States is over 40 percent lower than the minimum wage in 1970. Although the real dollar minimum wage in 1970 was only 1.60 U.S. dollars, when expressed in nominal 2024 dollars this increases to 13.05 U.S. dollars. This is a significant difference from the federal minimum wage in 2024 of 7.25 U.S. dollars.

Graph and download economic data for Real Median Personal Income in the United States (MEPAINUSA672N) from 1974 to 2024 about personal income, personal, median, income, real, and USA.

In 2023, the median hourly earnings of wage and salary workers in the United States was 19.24 U.S. dollars. This is an increase from 1979, when median hourly earnings were at 4.44 U.S. dollars. Hourly Workers The United States national minimum wage is 7.25 U.S. dollars per hour, which has been the minimum wage since 2009. However, each state has the agency to set their state minimum wage. Furthermore, some cities are able to create their minimum wage. Many argue that the minimum wage is too low and should be raised, because it is not considered a living wage. There has been a movement to raise the minimum wage to 15 U.S. dollars per hour, called “Fight for 15” which began in the early 2010s. While there has been no movement at the federal level, some states have moved to increase their minimum wages, with at least three states and the District of Columbia setting minimum wage rates at or above 15 dollars per hour. More recently, some proponents of increasing the minimum wage say that 15 dollars is too low, and lawmakers should strive toward a higher goal, especially given that a 2021 analysis found that the minimum wage in the U.S. should be 22.88 U.S. dollars if it grew at the same rate as economic productivity. Salary Workers On the other hand, salary workers in the United States do not get paid on an hourly basis. The median weekly earnings of salary workers have significantly increased since 1979. Asian salary workers had the highest hourly earnings in the U.S. in 2021. Among female salary workers, those ages 45 to 54 years old had the highest median hourly earnings in 2021, likewise for male salary workers.

Graph and download economic data for Real Median Family Income in the United States (MEFAINUSA672N) from 1953 to 2024 about family, median, income, real, and USA.

In 2024, the median household income in the United States was 83,730 U.S. dollars. This reflected an increase from the previous year. Household income The median household income depicts the income of households, including the income of the householder and all other individuals aged 15 years or over living in the household. Income includes wages and salaries, unemployment insurance, disability payments, child support payments received, regular rental receipts, as well as any personal business, investment, or other kinds of income received routinely. The median household income in the United States varied from state to state. In 2024, Massachusetts recorded the highest median household income in the country, at 113,900 U.S. dollars. On the other hand, Mississippi, recorded the lowest, at 55,980 U.S. dollars.Household income is also used to determine the poverty rate in the United States. In 2024, 10.6 percent of the U.S. population was living below the national poverty line. This was the lowest level since 2019. Similarly, the child poverty rate, which represents people under the age of 18 living in poverty, reached a three-decade low of 14.3 percent of the children. The state with the widest gap between the rich and the poor was New York, with a Gini coefficient score of 0.52 in 2024. The Gini coefficient is calculated by looking at average income rates. A score of zero would reflect perfect income equality, while a score of one indicates complete inequality.

In 1979, about 3.99 million workers were paid hourly rates at the official minimum wage. In 2023, about 81,000 workers were paid hourly rates at the prevailing minimum wage. The prevailing Federal minimum wage was 7.25 U.S. dollars per hour in 2023.

Graph and download economic data for Real Median Household Income in New York (MEHOINUSNYA672N) from 1984 to 2024 about NY, households, median, income, real, and USA.

This statistic shows the percent of workers paid hourly rates at or below prevailing federal minimum wage in the United States from 1980 to 2023, by gender. In 2023, only 1.5 percent of the female wage and salary workers were paid hourly rates at or below the federal minimum wage, compared to 21.6 percent in 1980.

This statistic shows the median household income in the United States from 1970 to 2020, by income tier. In 2020, the median household income for the middle class stood at 90,131 U.S. dollars, which was approximately a 50 percent increase from 1970. However, the median income of upper income households in the U.S. increased by almost 70 percent compared to 1970.

During the academic year of 2021-22, public school teachers in the United States made an average of 66,397 U.S. dollars per year. This is a significant increase from the 1979-80 school year, when the average annual wage for public school teachers was 15,970 U.S. dollars.

Stagnating wages

While the American economy is doing well, wages have been stagnating in recent years. The federal minimum wage, which currently stands at 7.25 U.S. dollars per hour, has not been raised since July 2009, meaning that minimum wage has not increased with inflation. Although minimum wage varies by state, the federal minimum wage prevails in many states. Additionally, median hourly earnings for workers, while increasing steadily, have not seen any significant jumps in recent years.

Fair pay for teachers

The majority of Americans believe that teachers are not paid fairly for the work that they do. Full-time public elementary and secondary school teachers in the U.S. have the highest salary in New York state, but the lowest salary in Mississippi.

In 2024 the median annual income of Asian households in the United States was 121,700 U.S. dollars. They were followed by White households, who's median earnings were 92,530 U.S. dollars. Furthermore, Black Americans and American Indian and Alaska Native families had the lowest household incomes. That year, median income among all U.S. household rose to 83,730 U.S. dollars.

As of 2024, the average annual wage of Germany was 50,257 euros at current prices. This was a real increase of around 7,300 Euros (in constant 2024 prices) when compared with 2000. However, the wage increase in real terms was low between 2000 and 2009, and wage growth accelerated mainly in the period between 2009 and 2019. Comparisons with rest of the EU Within the European Union Luxembourg had an average annual salary of almost 80 thousand Euros, with Germany having an annual salary comparable to other large European Countries, such as the United Kingdom and France. In neighboring Poland, the average annual salary was just over 39 thousand U.S dollars, meaning that German’s earned, on average, 20 percent more than what their Polish counterparts did. German economy slowing in 2023 While Germany initially had one of the strongest recoveries from the 2008 financial crash and as of 2020 had the largest economy in Europe its economy has started to slow in recent years. For 2023 the German economy is contracted by 0.26 percent, and while 2024 marked a slight improvement, the expectations are that 2025 remains a year of slow growth.

This project was designed to isolate the effects that individual crimes have on wage rates and housing prices, as gauged by individuals' and households' decisionmaking preferences changing over time. Additionally, this project sought to compute a dollar value that individuals would bear in their wages and housing costs to reduce the rates of specific crimes. The study used multiple decades of information obtained from counties across the United States to create a panel dataset. This approach was designed to compensate for the problem of collinearity by tracking how housing and occupation choices within particular locations changed over the decade considering all amenities or disamenities, including specific crime rates. Census data were obtained for this project from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) constructed by Ruggles and Sobek (1997). Crime data were obtained from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). Other data were collected from the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association, County and City Data Book, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Environmental Protection Agency. Independent variables for the Wages Data (Part 1) include years of education, school enrollment, sex, ability to speak English well, race, veteran status, employment status, and occupation and industry. Independent variables for the Housing Data (Part 2) include number of bedrooms, number of other rooms, building age, whether unit was a condominium or detached single-family house, acreage, and whether the unit had a kitchen, plumbing, public sewers, and water service. Both files include the following variables as separating factors: census geographic division, cost-of-living index, percentage unemployed, percentage vacant housing, labor force employed in manufacturing, living near a coastline, living or working in the central city, per capita local taxes, per capita intergovernmental revenue, per capita property taxes, population density, and commute time to work. Lastly, the following variables measured amenities or disamenities: average precipitation, temperature, windspeed, sunshine, humidity, teacher-pupil ratio, number of Superfund sites, total suspended particulate in air, and rates of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, auto theft, violent crimes, and property crimes.

Graph and download economic data for Real Disposable Personal Income (DSPIC96) from Jan 1959 to Aug 2025 about disposable, personal income, personal, income, real, and USA.

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Context

The gender pay gap or gender wage gap is the average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are working. Women are generally considered to be paid less than men. There are two distinct numbers regarding the pay gap: non-adjusted versus adjusted pay gap. The latter typically takes into account differences in hours worked, occupations were chosen, education, and job experience. In the United States, for example, the non-adjusted average female's annual salary is 79% of the average male salary, compared to 95% for the adjusted average salary.

The reasons link to legal, social, and economic factors, and extend beyond "equal pay for equal work".

The gender pay gap can be a problem from a public policy perspective because it reduces economic output and means that women are more likely to be dependent upon welfare payments, especially in old age.

This dataset aims to replicate the data used in the famous paper "The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations", which provides new empirical evidence on the extent of and trends in the gender wage gap, which declined considerably during the 1980–2010 period.

Citation

fedesoriano. (January 2022). Gender Pay Gap Dataset. Retrieved [Date Retrieved] from https://www.kaggle.com/fedesoriano/gender-pay-gap-dataset.

Content

There are 2 files in this dataset: a) the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) microdata over the 1980-2010 period, and b) the Current Population Survey (CPS) to provide some additional US national data on the gender pay gap.

PSID variables:

NOTES: THE VARIABLES WITH fz ADDED TO THEIR NAME REFER TO EXPERIENCE WHERE WE HAVE FILLED IN SOME ZEROS IN THE MISSING PSID YEARS WITH DATA FROM THE RESPONDENTS’ ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT JOBS WORKED ON DURING THESE MISSING YEARS. THE fz variables WERE USED IN THE REGRESSION ANALYSES THE VARIABLES WITH A predict PREFIX REFER TO THE COMPUTATION OF ACTUAL EXPERIENCE ACCUMULATED DURING THE YEARS IN WHICH THE PSID DID NOT SURVEY THE RESPONDENTS. THERE ARE MORE PREDICTED EXPERIENCE LEVELS THAT ARE NEEDED TO IMPUTE EXPERIENCE IN THE MISSING YEARS IN SOME CASES. NOTE THAT THE VARIABLES yrsexpf, yrsexpfsz, etc., INCLUDE THESE COMPUTATIONS, SO THAT IF YOU WANT TO USE FULL TIME OR PART TIME EXPERIENCE, YOU DON’T NEED TO ADD THESE PREDICT VARIABLES IN. THEY ARE INCLUDED IN THE DATA SET TO ILLUSTRATE THE RESULTS OF THE COMPUTATION PROCESS. THE VARIABLES WITH AN orig PREFIX ARE THE ORIGINAL PSID VARIABLES. THESE HAVE BEEN PROCESSED AND IN SOME CASES RENAMED FOR CONVENIENCE. THE hd SUFFIX MEANS THAT THE VARIABLE REFERS TO THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY, AND THE wf SUFFIX MEANS THAT IT REFERS TO THE WIFE OR FEMALE COHABITOR IF THERE IS ONE. AS SHOWN IN THE ACCOMPANYING REGRESSION PROGRAM, THESE orig VARIABLES AREN’T USED DIRECTLY IN THE REGRESSIONS. THERE ARE MORE OF THE ORIGINAL PSID VARIABLES, WHICH WERE USED TO CONSTRUCT THE VARIABLES USED IN THE REGRESSIONS. HD MEANS HEAD AND WF MEANS WIFE OR FEMALE COHABITOR.

1. intnum68: 1968 INTERVIEW NUMBER
2. pernum68: PERSON NUMBER 68
3. wave: Current Wave of the PSID
4. sex: gender SEX OF INDIVIDUAL (1=male, 2=female)
5. intnum: Wave-specific Interview Number
6. farminc: Farm Income
7. region: regLab Region of Current Interview
8. famwgt: this is the PSID’s family weight, which is used in all analyses
9. relhead: ER34103L this is the relation to the head of household (10=head; 20=legally married wife; 22=cohabiting partner)
10. age: Age
11. employed: ER34116L Whether or not employed or on temp leave (everyone gets a 1 for this variable, since our wage analyses use only the currently employed)
12. sch: schLbl Highest Year of Schooling
13. annhrs: Annual Hours Worked
14. annlabinc: Annual Labor Income
15. occ: 3 Digit Occupation 2000 codes
16. ind: 3 Digit Industry 2000 codes
17. white: White, nonhispanic dummy variable
18. black: Black, nonhispanic dummy variable
19. hisp: Hispanic dummy variable
20. othrace: Other Race dummy variable
21. degree: degreeLbl Agent's Degree Status (0=no college degree; 1=bachelor’s without advanced degree; 2=advanced degree)
22. degupd: degreeLbl Agent's Degree Status (Updated with 2009 values)
23. schupd: schLbl Schooling (updated years of schooling)
24. annwks: Annual Weeks Worked
25. unjob: unJobLbl Union Coverage dummy variable
26. usualhrwk: Usual Hrs Worked Per Week
27. labincbus: Labor Income from...

The total number of business establishments, mid-March employment figures, and first-quarter and annual payrolls are supplied in this collection at the county, state, and national levels. Also provided are data on the number of establishments by employment-size class.

The Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) series was designed to provide comprehensive information on various aspects of postsecondary education in the United States and its territories (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Marshall Islands) and Department of Defense schools outside the United States. Data are available for both public and private two-year and four-year institutions. The HEGIS Salaries component for 1980-1981 sought data from 3,269 institutions on the type and control of the institution, and the number of employed personnel by primary function and employment status. Key data elements, presented for up to ten record types for each institution (corresponding to length of contract and sex), include academic rank, number of faculty, salaries, tenure status, and fringe benefits.