How does your income compare to other people in your age group? Are you earning more or less than your peers—and does your gender affect the answer?
CNBC used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to put together a chart detailing the median weekly earnings of U.S. wage and salary workers by age and gender, and it’s worth taking a look at the full data set.
If you’re between 25 and 34 years old, for example, your age group’s median earnings are $837 per week or $43,524 per year. Men in that age group, however, earn a median income of $893 per week or $46,436 per year—and women only earn $779 per week or $40,508 per year.
I’m 37 years old, and my 2018 pretax freelance income was $67,700. This puts me about 43 percent higher than the median income for women aged 35–44 ($908 weekly, $47,216 annually). CNBC also helpfully notes that women tend to hit their peak earnings at age 44, after which our median income begins to steadily decline until retirement—which means I need to prioritize saving and investing while the getting’s good, I guess.
It’s also a good idea to prioritize saving and investing when you’re younger, even if you haven’t hit your full earning potential yet. Compound interest is a long game that rewards the early start, though it’s never too late to get started.
How does your income compare to your peers, both by age and by gender? (Yes, there’s more to gender than the male/female binary, but we have to work with the data that’s available.) Are your earnings growing—or declining—in sync with your age group, or are you an outlier?