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 reports, which 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 over the same period.

Women who usually worked full time had median weekly earnings of $689, or 79.7 percent of the $865 median for men. BLS finds that the 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.

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.