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Thursday, October 22, 2026

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Jobs · Thursday, October 22, 2026

Median weekly pay rose less than prices last quarter

The File desk · Oct. 22, 2026, 6:40 a.m. ET

Confirmed1 primary sources

Status

Confirmed from the Bureau of Labor Statistics release USDL-26-1604, published at 10:00 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. The comparison with consumer prices is the bureau's.
  • Confirmed
    Median usual weekly earnings were $1,232, not seasonally adjusted, up 1.5 percent from a year earlier. The bureau said the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose 3.5 percent over the same period.
  • Confirmed
    Seasonally adjusted, the median was $1,239, compared with $1,258 in the second quarter.
The typical full-time worker earned $1,232 a week in July through September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said at 10:00 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday. That was 1.5 percent more than a year earlier. Consumer prices rose 3.5 percent over the same stretch, the bureau said.1
The figure covers 122.2 million full-time wage and salary workers and it is not adjusted for the season. The seasonally adjusted median was $1,239, down from $1,258 in the second quarter. Women earned a median of $1,127, which was 83.4 percent of the $1,352 median for men. Those gaps are in the release.1
By schooling, the median was $819 for workers without a high-school diploma, $993 for high-school graduates, and $1,752 for workers with a bachelor's degree or more. The bureau said the fourth-quarter release will revise the seasonally adjusted series back to the first quarter of 2022. A rough subtraction of the 1.5 percent pay gain from the 3.5 percent price gain is this desk's reading, not a bureau sentence, and it is labeled below.1
Why it matters (Estimate). Estimate. If the typical paycheck grew 1.5 percent and the prices the bureau cites grew 3.5 percent, the week's pay bought less than it did a year earlier. That gap is a simple subtraction, not a separate official table. The seasonally adjusted median also slipped from the spring quarter, which is the bureau's comparison, not a guess.
The release number on the page is USDL-26-1604, and the clock on it is 10:00 a.m. Eastern, Wednesday, Oct. 21.
How we know

Notes

  1. 1.Bureau of Labor Statistics, Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers, third quarter 2026, USDL-26-1604, 10:00 a.m. Eastern, Wednesday, October 21, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.nr0.htm “Median weekly earnings of the nation's 122.2 million full-time wage and salary workers were $1,232 in the third quarter of 2026 (not seasonally adjusted).” “1.5 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 3.5 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over the same period.” Seasonally adjusted median $1,239, compared with $1,258 in the previous quarter. Women $1,127, 83.4 percent of men's $1,352. No high-school diploma $819. High-school graduates $993. Bachelor's degree or higher $1,752. The release says the fourth-quarter report will revise seasonally adjusted data back to the first quarter of 2022.

What is still unknown or disputed

  • A constant-dollar table was not pulled for this story. The buying-power line above is a subtraction.
  • Whether the fourth-quarter revision will change the seasonally adjusted $1,239.

Primary sources

Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.

  1. Source 1

    Usual weekly earnings, third quarter 2026

    Bureau of Labor Statistics · October 21, 2026

    Median weekly earnings were $1,232, up 1.5 percent, compared with a 3.5 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index. The seasonally adjusted median was $1,239.

    https://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.nr0.htm

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