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Are You Making More Or Less Than Others Your Age?

At some point in your working life and when the bills and mortgages get real, you might wonder if you are alone in all this. Of course, this has become a country-wide phenomenon and that could be the reason why you should know if you are earning more or less than the average American. Here are some data you might consider in finding out if you are making more or less than others:

Americans Are Earning More Than Ever

While the recession hit us hard fairly recently, America is already recovering and the average American is earning more and more as the poverty rate decreases across the country. This recovery is seen to continue for the next few years as jobs have been increasing while the average pay for the average American also continues to increase.

However, do not get too excited about this data. Such can have equivalent ramifications which can balance out the data. There are some discrepancies in how much people can make and there are a lot of factors which could affect the average American’s earning capacity.

Location, Gender and Age

The obvious classification for salary discrepancies would, of course, be jobs since it is pretty common knowledge that some jobs just pay higher than others. However, age, gender and location have also been considered by surveys as factors that could significantly affect salary, assuming all other standards are the same.

A survey conducted on 25 million people who were working full-time from 2011 to 105 revealed that there indeed were significant discrepancies between men and women working the same job with the same age and while living in different states.

Salaries in the US vary from very low to very high

Are You Middle Class?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wage for workers in the United States for the fourth quarter of 2016 was $849 per week, or around $44, 148 per year. This data showed that wages were 2.9 percent higher than the same period for the previous year, However, salaries can differ significantly more particularly based on occupation and location. Those who worked in professional management and related professions earned around $63,076 annually while those who had service occupations earned around $28,080. Those who are based in highly urbanized cities where the cost of living is higher also pay significantly more than rural jobs.

Education and gender also played significant roles in causing discrepancies in salaries. The same statistics show that men earned a median average of $927 per week while women earned $758. Workers without a high school degree had weekly average earnings of $519 while high school graduates earned $698 and college graduates earned around $1,270.

Average for Every Age

The Bureau of Labor Statistics observed that those from age 16 to 19 earned $420 per week or around $21,840 per year across all races and genders. Educational attainment is not very significant yet for this age group. For those who are 20 to 24, the average weekly salary is around $528 or about $27, 456 per year. For 25 to 24-year-olds, the median salary is $758 per week or around $39,416 per year which marks a big jump from the previous age group.

The average salary for 35 to 44-year-olds is $950 per week or $49,400 per year. However, gender variations are pretty concealed at this point, since this is particularly when males earn more than females. The average American peaks at around 45 to 44 when the average reaches $962 per week or $50,024 per year. This starts declining when the average American reaches 55 to 64  and for 65 and older.

Bottom Line

While the economy is doing a great job recovering from a financial crisis that hit it hard, a lot of Americans are still unemployed or under-employed. A lot would prefer to take up lighter work for lesser pay or some prefer to work part-time when they can go full time.

Therefore, you should take these statistics with a grain of salt since they only actually apply to full-time or purely compensation earners. There is an infinite number of possible sources of income aside from compensation, so this data is not really that applicable on a wider scale. What do you think of America’s averages when it comes to salary? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

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