2014 WAGE LEVELS AND MEDIAN INCOME

     Whenever there's talk about income inequality, I always find myself thinking that finding out what percentage of the populations makes what would be a much more useful and accurate way of looking at income inequality.

      Awhile back I came across a blog by Michael Snyder entitled "Goodbye Middle Class...." [WashingtonBlog, October 21, 2015] bemoaning the fact that 51% of americans made less than $30,000 a year. It also contained a link to a table of 2014 wage statistics from the Social Security Administration. At last! I thought. Something concrete to pin all these abstract percentages (the 1%, the 99%, the bottom 30, the top 10, etc.) I'm always hearing about on.

     The 2014 table of wages runs from $0 - $50,000,000 starting in increments of $5,000. It's over 50 rows. I wanted something simple. So, starting with $30,000/51% as the base, I grouped wages into the following seven levels:

$30,000 and below

$30,000 – 39,999

$40,000 – 49,999

$50,000 – 74,999

$75,000 – 99,999

$100,000 – $249,999

$250,000 and above

until I reached that elusive 1%, at least of wages.

     The following chart is the result:

WAGE LEVELS 2014
$250,000 and above – 1%	3,170,000 people
$100,000 - 249,999 – 7%	22,190,000 people
$75,000 - 99,999 – 7%	22,190,000 people
$50,00 - 74,999 – 13%	41,210,000 people
$40,000 – 49,999 – 9%	28,530,000 people
$30,000 - $39,999 – 12%	38,040,000 people
$30,000 or less – 51%	161,670,000 people

     What I like about this chart is that it helps me see that talk about the average wage of americans depends what wage level you're talking about. It also helps me understand why, when you consider how debt-ridden americans are, so many people feel such economic anxiety.

     On Sept. 13 the New York Times and other media outlets announced to great fanfare a new median household income of $56,500, an almost 5% percent increase over the previous year. 

     That made me curious. What was the median household income level in 2014, and where would it fall on the graph above?

     Googling that question came up with a median income of $53,891. Rounding it off to $53,999, the median income would roughly fall here on the chart:

WAGE LEVELS 2014
$250,000 and above – 1%	3,170,000 people
$100,000 - 250,000 – 7%	22,190,000 people
$75,000 - 99,999 – 7%	22,190,000 people
$54,000 - 75,000 – 12%	38,040,000 people
2014 MEDIAN INCOME $53,891
$40,000 – 53,999 – 10%	31,700,000 people
$30,000 - $39,999 – 12%	38,040,000 people
$30,000 or less – 51%	161,670,000 people

     I can see why the news of increased median income growth was greeted with such a so what? response by so many people. What good is median income growth if you're wages aren't anywhere near that? Almost full employment looks great on paper, but a lot different to people working two 25-30 hours-a-week jobs at $10-12 an hour just to make ends meet.

     In October 2016, the Social Security Administration will be coming out with new wage statistics for 2015. It will be interesting to see what has changed and what hasn't, and where the current median income falls now.