Average Salary in the U.S. by Age | Capital One (2024)

You may or may not realize that the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) keeps track of employment information—including salaries—at the national level.

Keep reading to learn more about the BLS’ salary statistics and how your salary stacks up.

Key takeaways

• Median salary statistics in the U.S. are reported by the BLS.
• Age is one helpful way to compare median salaries in the U.S. But other factors—like industry, location and education level—can impact salaries too.
• Pay gaps exist between the sexes and between ethnicities and races.
• Taking a look at the BLS median salary data can help you compare your salary to that of your peers—and even help you negotiate your salary.

Whenever the BLS reports salary statistics, it typically shows the median—the salary right in the middle. In other words, half of workers earned less than the median, and half earned more than the median.

But why report the median instead of the average? The highest salaries are so atypical that they can skew the data. By relying on the median instead of the average, you can get a more accurate picture of typical income levels.

One helpful way of looking at median salaries is by age group since it allows you to compare your salary to that of others who are around the same age.

Here are the second quarter 2023 earnings of full-time wage and salary workers, ages 16 and older, according to the BLS:

While age is one helpful way to consider median salary data, other factors appear to influence salaries too. One major factor that can impact salary is education level.

Here’s how education levels compare among the second quarter 2023 full-time wage and salary workers, ages 25 and older, according to the BLS:

As the BLS points out, pay gaps—other than those related to factors like age, education, industry and location—exist between the sexes.

For example, women only earned about 84.1% of what men earned in the second quarter of 2023.

Here’s the breakdown of the earnings of full-time wage and salary workers, ages 16 and older, according to the BLS:

Pay gaps also exist between ethnicities and races.

Here’s how they compare among the second quarter 2023 earnings of full-time wage and salary workers, ages 16 and older, according to the BLS:

Earnings can also vary depending on the state and size of the organization.

For example, these are the average weekly wages by state for private companies with 100-249 employees as of March 2022, the most recent data from the BLS:

Salaries can depend on the industry an employee works in. The BLS last compiled and shared data in May 2022 from all industries in both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas from every state and Washington, D.C.

The following are the average annual salaries for some major industries: