Median weekly earnings for the nation's 120.9 million full-time wage and salary workers were $1,251 in the second quarter of 2026, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. That was 4.6 percent higher than a year earlier, while the Consumer Price Index for urban consumers rose 3.9 percent over the same period.\n\nThe comparison suggests that the median worker's earnings grew faster than consumer prices over the year, but it is not a complete measure of household purchasing power. The earnings figure covers wage and salary workers employed full time and excludes benefits, taxes, part-time workers and people without jobs.\n\nWomen had median weekly earnings of $1,131, equal to 82 percent of the $1,380 median for men. Median earnings also differed substantially by race, ethnicity, occupation, age and education. Workers in management and professional occupations had the highest medians among the broad occupational groups; service occupations had the lowest.\n\nOn a seasonally adjusted basis, median weekly earnings increased to $1,258 from $1,233 in the first quarter. The estimates come from the Current Population Survey and are subject to sampling error and later revision.\n\nSource: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, second-quarter earnings summary — https://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.nr0.htm\n\nSource: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, seasonally adjusted earnings table — https://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.t01.htm