Wages by percentile
Three points on the full-time wage ladder: the 10th percentile near the bottom, the median in the middle, the 90th near the top. One average would hide the distance between them.
Hover the chart to read all three at a quarter. The distance between the lines is the spread of full-time pay.
Source: BLS Current Population Survey, via FRED · LEU0252911200Q / LEU0252881500Q / LEU0252911500Q · 2000 to Jan 2026
· nominal dollars
Reading it. These are the weekly earnings at three rungs of the ladder for full-time wage and salary workers. They show where the rungs sit and how far apart they are, not why they moved. It is a snapshot of positions each quarter, not the same workers followed over time, so it cannot track any one person's path.
What it leaves out. Full-time wage and salary workers only: part-timers, the self-employed, and people not working are not counted. Figures are before taxes, benefits, and transfers. The deciles begin in 2000; the median runs longer but is shown from 2000 so all three line up.
About the bands. Shaded spans are NBER-dated US recessions, drawn as factual overlays. They mark when the economy contracted, not why. Lining an event or policy up with a move on this chart is not evidence that it caused the move.