What Is the Median Income for My Age?
"What's the median income for my age?" is a surprisingly hard question to answer for yourself — most salary reports lump everyone from 22 to 65 into a handful of broad brackets. The calculator above gives you a personal number, built from your exact birth date instead of a five- or ten-year age range.
The short version: full-time pay in the US climbs quickly through your 20s and 30s, levels off through your 40s and 50s, and eases down as more people shift to part-time work heading into retirement. Where you land on that curve says less about whether you're "behind" and more about which stretch of a fairly normal career arc you're currently in.
The rest of this page walks through that curve — how it's shaped, what the numbers behind it actually measure, and where they come from.
The shape of the earnings curve
Median full-time income roughly doubles between age 18 (about $35,300) and its high point around 40 (about $70,500), and that climb is front-loaded: pay rises by more than $11,000 between 25 and 30 alone, then by about the same amount again by 40. That's the steepest, most compounding stretch of a career.
After 40, the curve flattens. Median pay barely moves between 40 and 50 (about $70,500 down to roughly $69,500), then eases through the 50s and 60s — around $65,900 at 60 and $60,300 by 70 — as more workers shift to part-time schedules or step back from full-time work. The peak isn't really one year; it's a plateau spanning roughly ages 40 to 55.
Because early gains compound, a raise at 27 has more runway to matter than the same raise at 47 — one more reason the steep part of the curve is worth paying attention to while it's happening.
How the calculator works
These figures come from the same interpolation the calculator above uses: US Bureau of Labor Statistics median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers, broken out by age bracket, annualized (multiplied by 52), and then interpolated between bracket midpoints to estimate a value for your exact age rather than a five- or ten-year range.
A few things this number is and isn't. It covers full-time workers only, so it excludes part-time workers, the unemployed, and people outside the labor force — part of why the dip after 60 shows up here: workers shift toward part-time roles, not because full-time pay itself falls that fast. It's individual income, not household income, and it's pre-tax. It's also US-only and reflects a national median, not any specific region, industry, or education level.
Treat it as a reasonable, data-grounded estimate for someone your age — not a prediction of what you specifically earn.
Median US income by age
| Age | Median income |
|---|---|
| 18 | $35,308 |
| 25 | $47,632 |
| 30 | $59,072 |
| 40 | $70,512 |
| 50 | $69,472 |
| 60 | $65,936 |
| 70 | $60,268 |
BLS median earnings of full-time workers, annualized and interpolated between age brackets. Individual, pre-tax, US-only.
Frequently asked questions
What's the median income at age 25?
About $47,600 a year, based on BLS full-time earnings data interpolated to that exact age. That's already up sharply from roughly $35,300 at 18 — the mid-20s are typically where the steepest early-career pay growth happens, as workers move past entry-level roles.
What's the median income at age 40?
About $70,500 a year — the highest point on the full-time earnings curve in this data. Age 40 sits right at the start of a broader plateau: median pay barely changes over the following decade, so 40 is less a sharp peak and more the top of a long flat stretch.
At what age do earnings typically peak?
Roughly between 40 and 55, based on BLS patterns. Pay isn't a spike at one specific age — it's more of a plateau, where median full-time earnings hold fairly steady before gradually declining through the 50s and 60s as career growth slows and more workers shift toward part-time work or retirement.
What's the difference between median and average income?
The median is the middle value — half of workers earn more, half earn less. The average (mean) gets pulled upward by a relatively small number of very high earners, so it tends to overstate what a "typical" person makes. That's why income statistics, including this page's, use the median.
Is this individual income or household income?
Individual — specifically, a full-time worker's own pre-tax earnings. Household income, which combines everyone living in a home who earns money, runs higher: the median US household income is roughly $80,000. The two aren't directly comparable, since they're measuring different things.
Why does median income drop after age 60?
Mostly because the mix of "full-time workers" changes, not because pay for a given job falls. As people approach retirement, more shift to part-time schedules, reduced hours, or lower-stress roles, and higher earners are more likely to retire outright — softening the full-time median even as individual wages hold fairly steady.
Where does this data come from, and what are its limits?
US Bureau of Labor Statistics median weekly earnings by age, from the Current Population Survey, annualized and interpolated to exact ages. It covers full-time workers only, pre-tax, US-wide — it doesn't account for part-time work, location, industry, education, or household size, so treat it as a general benchmark rather than a precise match for your situation.
Sources
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