---
title: How Your Wage Today Compares to What You'd Earn in 1973
description: If you are man, chances are you earn less now than a similar worker four decades ago.
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published: '2015-09-21T19:33:33.000Z'
modified: '2015-09-21T19:33:33.000Z'
section: Economy and Politics
tags:
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  - Wages
word_count: 155
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![Ford Escort production line, 1973](https://img.money.com/2015/09/150921_ff_wages1973.jpg)
*The Ford Escort production line in 1973.*

In 2014, the typical man with a full-time job earned $50,383 a year, the Census Bureau reported last week.

That's about $2,900 less then he would have earned in 1973. In that year, the median male wage—that is, the earnings of a man doing better than half of other men—was $53,294, if adjusted for inflation.

Women saw more progress in their earnings. The inflation-adjusted salary of the median female worker increased 30% in the 41 years between, going from $30,182 to $39,621, according to the [Census Bureau's annual report on income](http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p60-252.pdf). But the typical full-time employed woman still earns less than her male counterpart.

In an interview with the [Brookings Institution's David Wessel](http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2015/09/17-male-us-worker-earned-less-in-2014-than-in-1973-wessel), labor economist Larry Katz of Harvard University said men's wage stagnation is the result of rising wage inequality and the growing gap between the highest-paid earners and everyone else.

![image (4)](https://img.money.com/2015/09/image-4.png)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplements.

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