Prices and Wages by Decade: 2000-2009

Chart from the U.S. Dept of Labor shows the first federal minimum wage law enacted in 1938 (25 cents), and all subsequent increases through 2009. Some states set minimum wage higher than the federal level.

Shows the minimum wage rates set by state laws. For further detail, consult annual articles titled "State labor legislation enacted in [year]" from the U.S. Dept of Labor's Monthly Labor Review. Click for direct links to articles for 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Chart shows average annual and weekly wages per employee, across all industries, for each year from 2000-2008. For details on how this data was defined and collected, see this section of the BLS 2008 Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages website. This data is also available as a downloadable Excel file from the 2012 Statistical Abstract of the United States (source)

These articles rank over 400 full-time occupations by earnings from high to low:

• 2000 - Table 1 (pp.47-55) shows mean hourly earnings (source).
• 2004 - Table 1 (pp.5-23) shows mean annual earnings (source).
• 2005 - Table 1 (pp.4-24) shows mean hourly earnings (source).
• 2009 - Gives the mean annual earnings of the 20 highest (table 1, p.2) and 20 lowest (table 2, pp.3-4) paid occupations (source).

This article looks at 2001 employment and wage data using the North American
Industry Classification System data; tables 1 (p.23), 2 (p.25), 3 (pp.26-28), and 4 (pp.29-30) all show average weekly wages by industry in March (source).

Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States.

This source lists earnings broken out by sex, race, ethnicity, educational attainment, etc. It is possible to get data for a combination of these elements, such as both race and gender.

Shows average wage for over 800 occupations. Archival data from 1997 to 2019.

Select any year from 1954-2007; tables of contents will appear for each issue. Look for tables describing EARNINGS expressed in "current dollars." Mostly covers jobs in manufacturing, industry and production. Note that earnings data for states and major cities are also available in these reports.

Details the earnings of individuals employed throughout the US economy, broken down by industry. Only the years 2007-2019 are online.

Editions are freely available on the FRASER digital library site.

Table 1 on pages 3-16 of this article show mean hourly earnings of full-time workers in over 400 occupations for June 2005 as reported in the 2006 National Compensation Survey, the full version of which can be found above (source).

Reports on Metropolitan Statistical Areas direct from the BLS website. Years covered vary by area, but most are for 2009 and 2010.

This series is a rich source for average wage data. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The periodical Farm Labor has been in publication for nearly 90 years. It was originally published monthly, and then became a quarterly. The Hathi Trust digital library has these issues as well.

A trio of articles report on the 2007 earnings in the nonprofit sector: one looks at management, professional, and administrative support occupations; one at educational and research institutions; and one at healthcare, personal care, and social service occupations (source).

Historical chart shows salaries of members of the U.S. Congress, along with dates of enactment and statutory authority for each pay increase.

IMPORTANT: wages can be only one part of overall income. Wages alone do not necessarily equate to a person's total income. If income works for your purposes, you can find income tables in the Census Bureau's Current Population Reports P-60 series, "Consumer Income."
This series, which presents data on families, individuals, and households at various income levels, includes a number of annual sub-series as well as individual and advanced data reports.
Click 'more...' below for reports containing 2000s income data.

This article reports on the average hourly wages of cooks (both full- and part-time) in select metropolitan areas in July of 2009 (source).

This article shows the mean hourly wages of healthcare workers by lever for 2008; see table 1 on pages 2-3 and table 2 on pages 5-6 (source).

This table, from an article on the offshoring of the information technology sector, shows average hourly IT wages by industry for the years 1994, 2000, and 2004 (source).

This article reports on the earnings of janitors in 2000; tables 1 to 4 (pp.6-7) show mean hourly wages by geographic area, metropolitan vs. nonmetropolitan areas, selected localities, and level of work (source).

This is not a government website but it does a good job of organizing a complex topic. For original government documents showing pay, contact us.

See table 1 on page 6 of this article for average hourly earnings of Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses in 2003 by profit and nonprofit private hospitals and in state and local government (source).

See table 2 on page 6 of this article for average hourly earnings of teachers in 2003 in profit and nonprofit colleges and universities (source).

Source: American Federation of Teachers' Survey and Analysis of Teacher Salary Trends, 2007.

This table shows the median annual wages of workers in technology-oriented occupations in May 2004 (source).

This article reports on manufacturing earnings in China, with tables showing average annual earnings (in yuan) in 2002 by category, subsector, and province. Also includes a table of average annual real earnings for 1990-2002 (source).

Table 1 of this article on India's organized manufacturing sector shows workers' average hourly earnings for 1999-2012 (in rupees and U.S. dollars).

This calculator allows you to compare the buying power of wages earned at different points in history. For example, a dollar earned in 2016 had the same buying power as 4 cents in 1913. Conversely, a dollar earned in 1913 had the same buying power as $24.24 in the year 2016.