Salary data looks very different depending on whether you use the mean or the median. The mean is pulled upward by a small number of very high earners, making it a misleading benchmark for most people. The median, the point at which half of workers earn more and half earn less, is a far more honest comparison.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Population Survey publishes quarterly earnings data for full-time wage and salary workers in the United States. The ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) performs the same function in the United Kingdom, surveying approximately 1% of all employee jobs every year. The ONS overall median full-time salary in the UK for 2024 was £37,430.

Age group	US median (male)	US median (female)	UK median (overall)
16–24	$41,860	$37,700	£21,000
25–34	$62,504	$53,196	£36,500
35–44	$73,528	$59,644	£40,000
45–54	$76,284	$60,632	£39,000
55–64	$73,892	$56,576	£35,000
65+	$62,400	$49,400	£35,000

The data above reflects full-time workers only. Part-time workers skew considerably lower, and the BLS reports their earnings separately. Salary is only one component of the picture; our net worth by age calculator shows how wealth accumulates differently from income. If you work part-time, the calculator still gives a directionally useful comparison but you should interpret the result with that caveat in mind.

Why do we use median? Consider that in the 45–54 age bracket, a relatively small number of executives and senior professionals earning $300,000 or more pull the mean salary well above what a typical worker in that age group earns. The median is unaffected by those outliers. For a population-level comparison, median is the only figure that is meaningfully representative.

When do salaries peak?

In the United States, median earnings for full-time workers peak in the 45–54 age bracket. The rise is steep through the 20s and 30s as workers accumulate experience and move into more senior roles. Growth slows in the early 40s and plateaus in the mid-40s to early 50s, before a gradual decline begins in the late 50s.

In the United Kingdom, the ONS ASHE data shows a similar pattern with peak earnings in the 40–49 age group for both men and women. The shape of the curve is a broad inverted U, with a longer plateau than the sharp peak sometimes depicted in popular accounts.

The decline after the peak has several well-documented drivers. Skill obsolescence plays a role in fast-moving sectors where workers who do not retrain see their market value erode. Reduced hours are significant: many workers in their late 50s voluntarily reduce hours ahead of retirement, bringing annual earnings down even if their hourly rate holds steady. Our retirement age calculator shows when workers actually leave the labour market. Retirement eligibility from 62 onwards in the US draws higher earners out of the full-time workforce, leaving a sample that is slightly more concentrated at lower earnings levels.

One important nuance: these are cross-sectional figures, not cohort data. They show what different age groups earn today, not what today’s 30-year-olds will earn when they reach 50. Cohort analysis, which follows the same individuals over time, tends to show steeper lifetime earnings growth for younger cohorts who entered the workforce during periods of wage growth.

The gender pay gap across the age curve

The gender pay gap is not static across a career, it widens significantly with age. At 16–24, women in the US earn approximately 90.1% of their male counterparts’ median weekly earnings. By the 45–54 age bracket, that figure drops to around 79.5%. The overall US gender pay gap in 2025, across all ages, stands at women earning 82.1% of men’s median weekly earnings (BLS Women’s Earnings Report 2024).

The primary drivers of widening are well-established in the economic literature. The motherhood penalty, the earnings reduction associated with having children, which falls almost exclusively on women, is the largest single contributor. Research from Kleven et al. (2019) using Danish administrative data found that children account for approximately 80% of the remaining gender earnings gap in that country. US and UK evidence points in the same direction.

Caregiving interruptions, including career breaks to care for elderly relatives as well as children, compound over a career. Each interruption reduces continuous service, seniority-linked pay increases, and pension accumulation. Women are also more likely to accept lower-paying roles for flexibility, proximity to home, or other non-wage attributes, a pattern documented extensively in occupational sorting research.

The gap in the 16–24 bracket being relatively small is partly explained by the fact that most workers in this group have not yet had children, and occupational sorting has not yet had time to compound. The narrowing of the early-career gap in recent decades is a genuine labour market trend, but it does not automatically carry through to older age groups for the same cohort.

How does education affect lifetime earnings?

The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce (2021) estimated that a worker with a bachelor’s degree will earn approximately $1.2 million more over a lifetime than a comparable worker with only a high school diploma. A graduate degree extends that advantage further, approximately $1.5 million more for men and $1.1 million more for women compared to high school graduates.

Education does not simply shift the salary curve upward; it also changes its shape. Highly educated workers typically show a steeper inverted-U curve, with a more pronounced rise through their 30s as they move from entry-level professional roles to senior positions, a higher peak, and a somewhat sharper late-career decline as they tend to retire earlier and at higher rates than less-educated workers.

There are important caveats. The earnings premium from a degree varies enormously by field of study. Georgetown’s research found that engineering and computer science graduates have lifetime earnings far above the average bachelor’s holder, while arts and humanities graduates may earn little more than skilled trades workers. The ROI on a degree is not uniform, and the calculation is complicated by tuition costs and student debt, which have risen significantly faster than median earnings since the 1980s.

For UK workers, the ONS has found a similar premium, though the absolute magnitude is smaller due to lower average earnings and the compressed wage distribution in the UK compared to the US. UK graduate premium research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies consistently finds a positive return, though concentrated in STEM and professional fields.

Frequently asked questions

£37,000 is very close to the ONS ASHE 2024 median full-time salary of £37,430 for all employees. Whether it is “good” depends on your location, age, and living costs. In London, £37,000 sits below the median for the capital, where the median full-time salary is closer to £46,000. In many other parts of the UK, £37,000 is comfortably above the local median. As a general benchmark, earning at or above the national median puts you in the middle of the full-time workforce.

The BLS Current Population Survey for Q4 2024 shows the median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary workers at $1,165, which is approximately $60,580 annually. This is the overall median across all ages and both genders. The median varies considerably by age: workers aged 45–54 have the highest median at around $73,000–$76,000 depending on gender, while workers aged 16–24 have a median closer to $38,000–$42,000. These are pre-tax figures for full-time workers only.

The primary reason the gap widens is the intersection of career progression with family formation. In the 20s, men and women in the same occupation with the same education earn very similar amounts. As workers move into their 30s, women who have children typically see a measurable earnings reduction (the motherhood penalty), while men with children often see an earnings increase (the fatherhood bonus, documented by Budig and England). Compound this over a decade of seniority and promotion cycles and the gap at 45–54 reflects many years of divergent trajectories, not a single discriminatory event.

In the US, median full-time earnings peak in the 45–54 age group based on BLS CPS data. In the UK, ONS ASHE data shows peak median earnings in the 40–49 age group. Both peaks reflect a broad plateau rather than a sharp spike, earnings in the 35–55 range are broadly similar and the decline in the late 50s is gradual. The age of individual peak earnings varies significantly by occupation and industry: knowledge workers and senior managers tend to peak later, while manual and trade workers often peak earlier.

In the US, Bureau of Labor Statistics data from the Current Population Survey shows that median weekly earnings for full-time workers peak in the 45 to 54 age group. In the UK, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings places the peak in the 40 to 49 bracket. Both datasets show a broad plateau rather than a sharp peak: earnings in the 35 to 55 range are broadly similar, and the decline after 55 is gradual rather than steep.

Yes. BLS data consistently shows that women's median earnings plateau earlier and at a lower level than men's. The 2024 Women's Earnings Report from the BLS found that women's median weekly earnings peak in the 35 to 44 age group, roughly a decade earlier than men's peak. This earlier plateau is linked to the "motherhood penalty," where career interruptions and reduced hours during childbearing years compress lifetime earnings growth. Tamborini, Kim, and Sakamoto (2015) in Demography confirmed this pattern using Social Security Administration longitudinal records.

According to BLS Current Population Survey data for 2024, the median weekly earnings for full-time workers aged 25 to 34 in the US is approximately $1,050, which translates to roughly $54,600 per year. In the UK, the ONS ASHE 2024 data puts the median full-time salary for 30-year-olds at around $33,000. These are medians, so half of workers earn more and half earn less. Earnings at 30 vary enormously by occupation, education level, and region, so comparing yourself to the overall median provides only a rough benchmark.

Significantly. The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce (2021) found that workers with a bachelor's degree earn roughly 75% more over a lifetime than those with only a high school diploma. Education also shifts the timing of the peak: workers with advanced degrees tend to see earnings continue rising into their 50s, while those without a degree often peak in their late 30s or early 40s. BLS data shows that the gap between education levels widens with age, meaning the returns to education compound over a career rather than remaining constant.

Data sources

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025). Current Population Survey. Median weekly earnings, Table CPSAAT37
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2024). Women’s Earnings Report
ONS. (2024). Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), Table 6.1a
Tamborini CR, Kim C, Sak A. (2015). Demography, 52(4), 1383–1407
Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce. (2021). The College Payoff

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