Part-time job pay

What It Means

Part-time job pay is what someone earns from a job with fewer hours than a full-time schedule. Because the hours are shorter, it's usually compared by the hour or by the week rather than by the year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) put median weekly earnings for part-time wage and salary workers at $386 in 2025, meaning half earned more and half earned less.

How People Say It at Work

• "It's twenty hours a week at eighteen an hour."
• "The part-time shifts pay the same rate as full time."
• "I'm picking up a weekend job for extra cash."

The Breakdown

The numbers, from BLS. Median weekly earnings of part-time wage and salary workers, Current Population Survey annual averages (Table 38):

BLS counted about 25.0 million part-time wage and salary workers in 2025. Its 2025 figures are 11-month averages that leave out October, when the survey wasn't collected during the federal government shutdown, so BLS says they aren't strictly comparable with other years.

Worked example. A job pays $18 an hour (an example rate). Twenty hours a week comes to $360 before taxes, a little under the $386 median, while 25 hours brings $450, above it. To reach $386 in 20 hours, the rate would need to be $19.30.

What moves the number

• Hours. A weekly figure grows with every shift, which is why part-time pay is easiest to compare by the hour.
• Age. In the BLS table, workers 25 and over earned well above those 16 to 24.
• The minimum wageMinimum wageThe lowest hourly pay the law allows an employer to pay; the federal minimum is $7.25 an hour, and a higher state or local rate wins where one applies. See more where you work, which sets the floor for the hourly rate.

Good to Know

This BLS table counts wage and salary workers only, so people working part time for themselves aren't in it. Its figures are medians, the middle of the range, and they're weekly earnings before taxes. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour for covered nonexempt employees, according to the Department of Labor, and a higher state or local minimum applies where there is one. How employers and agencies draw the line between part time and full time is on the part-time work page.

Related Terms and Categories

• Minimum wage

  The lowest hourly pay the law allows an employer to pay; the federal minimum is $7.25 an hour, and a higher state or local rate wins where one applies.

• Take-home pay

  The money that actually reaches you from a paycheck after taxes and other deductions are taken out, also called net pay or net income.

• Side hustle

  Paid work done alongside a main job or other commitments, such as freelancing, delivery driving or selling goods; the IRS treats the income as taxable.

• Gross income

  The full amount you earn before taxes and other deductions come out. For federal taxes, it's all income you receive unless a law exempts it.

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