IRS – Kevin Pierce and Jon Gober, Summer 2013: “For Tax Year 2008, some 140.7 million individual income taxpayers earned approximately $5.7 trillion in wages, tips, and other compensation, as reported on Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. Both the total number of taxpayers and amount of wages declined 2 percent over the next 2 years to 136.8 million taxpayers with total earnings of approximately $5.6 trillion. However, average W-2 earnings rose slightly from $40,532 in 2008 to $40,892 in 2010. When comparing the wages of men and women, men, on average, earned more. However, between 2008 and 2010, women reported an increase in their average W-2 earnings, a continuing trend reflected in statistics going back to 1969, the first year the Statistics of Income (SOI) Division published data from Form W-2. By comparison, men reported a decline in their average wage amount during this period.”