New federal data on American income trends over the last year:
…the pay of America’s highest earners—74 people who made more than $50 million—more than quintupled on average to a record $519 million each. Those top-end Americans earned a combined $38.4 billion in 2009…
Nationally, the average annual wage fell by $384 to $39,269 and the median wage fell by $253 to $26,261 during the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. The 74 top wage earners together made as much as the combined income of the 19 million lowest-paid people in America, who constitute one in every eight workers.
Another statistic of note: One in every 34 wage earners in 2008 failed to earn a single dollar in 2009.
Sure would be unfair to increase tax rates on the rich.
Matt the Engineer
Gee, I wonder what we could do to fix this.
Bonnie Frye Hemphill
Quick question – the term “wages” is sensibly applied to the hourly wage earners most likely dominating those lower 19 million folks. But “wages” sounds farcical for the super-rich. Does the term account just for the paychecks, or does it also account for their investment returns, trust-fund pay-outs, etc?
Eric de Place
Bonnie, here’s what I know (from the article):”The Social Security data didn’t offer details on the 74 top earners. Johnston, a former New York Times reporter who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for exposing inequities in the tax code, said those income earners most likely were Wall Street traders who earned bonuses or corporate executives cashing in deferred compensation that accumulated over the years, or even highly paid professional athletes.”It’s likely that it refers to all forms of income, which would include salaries/wages, as well as interest, dividend, capital gains, business income, etc.