In 2017, Massachusetts women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median usual weekly earnings of $971 or 80.6 percent of the $1,204 median usual weekly earnings of their male counterparts, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Deborah A. Brown noted that the 2017 women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio in Massachusetts decreased from 2016, down 3.7 percentage points. Nationwide, women earned $770 per week or 81.8 percent of the $941 median for men. (See table 1. The earnings comparisons in this release are on a broad level and do not control for many factors that can be significant in explaining earnings differences, such as job skills and responsibilities, work experience, and specialization.)

Among the 50 states, median weekly earnings of women in full-time wage and salary positions in 2017 ranged from $643 in Mississippi to $971 in Massachusetts. In addition to Massachusetts, women’s earnings in Alaska, Connecticut, Maryland, and New Jersey were above $875 per week. In the District of Columbia, women earned a median weekly wage of $1,191. (See table 1 and chart 2 .)

Median weekly earnings for men were lowest in New Mexico at $771 and highest in Massachusetts at $1,204. Three other states (Connecticut, Maryland, and New Jersey) had weekly wages above $1,100 for full-time male workers. In the District of Columbia, men earned a median weekly wage of $1,385.

New Mexico had the highest women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio among the states, 90.9 percent, and Wyoming had the lowest, 71.6 percent. The District of Columbia had a ratio of 86.0 percent. (See chart 3.) The differences among the states reflect, in part, variation in the occupations and industries found in each state and differences in the demographic composition of each state’s labor force. In addition, sampling error for state estimates is considerably larger than it is for the national estimates. Thus, earnings comparisons between states should be made with caution.

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Technical Note

The estimates in this release were obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), which provides information on the labor force, employment, and unemployment. This survey is conducted monthly for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the U.S. Census Bureau, using a scientifically selected national sample of about 60,000 eligible households, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The earnings data are collected from one-fourth of the CPS monthly sample and are limited to wage and salary workers. All self-employed workers, both incorporated and unincorporated, are excluded from the data presented in this report.

Table A. Unemployment rates for the United States, and counties comprising Cape Cod and the Islands, not seasonally adjusted

Area	Unemployment rates				Net change from
	July 2012	July 2013	July 2014	July 2015(1)	July 2012 to July 2013	July 2013 to July 2014	July 2014 to July 2015(1)
United States	8.6	7.7	6.5	5.6	-0.9	-1.2	-0.9
Barnstable County, Mass.	6.4	6.4	5.5	4.7	0.0	-0.9	-0.8
Dukes County, Mass.	5.4	5.7	4.8	4.0	0.3	-0.9	-0.8
Nantucket County, Mass.	4.1	3.8	3.2	2.5	-0.3	-0.6	-0.7
(1) Data for the counties on Cape Cod and the Islands are preliminary for the most recent month.