“Dollar Bills” by Catherine De Las Salas. January 2015. New York City.

As President Barack Obama addressed the Nation’s Congress speaking of income inequalities among men and women, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its quarterly report on weekly earnings focusing on such differences. The Median Weekly Earnings for full-time (more than 35 hours worked per week) American worker were U$799 before adjusting by season. Women’s Median weekly earnings were U$724 whereas men’s Median were U$882. This dollar amount represents earnings before taxes and other deductions of a person right in the middle of the income spectrum, which means that half of the 107 million full-time workers made more than U$796 weekly, and the other half made less than U$796 per week during the last four months of 2014 (See how this data compares with inflation).

On annual basis:

Obviously, the measure is a rough aggregation of the entire US full-time workers. And, in spite of 1.6 standard errors, data broken by occupation show that the greatest gains –if any, and if “greatest”- over the year were for the full-time median worker in transportation, production, and material moving occupations, who statistically speaking experienced an increase in his/her weekly earnings of about 3.38 percent when compared to the earnings of 2013 (See how this data compares with sales for the holiday season 2014). There are approximately 14 million people working full-time in Production and Transportation related occupation in United States. Services related occupation’s median worker realized –statistically speaking- 2.43 percent more in his weekly pay, whereas Sales and office median worker made 1.06 percent more per week during 2014 when compared to 2013. Finally, the Median manager’s earnings increased an imperceptible 0.44 percent over the year in his/her weekly paycheck.

Although statistically insignificant, this is the first time since 2006 that the fourth quarter statistic declines compared to the third quarter statistic.