The income of the average American worker—long the envy of much of the world—has dropped for the third year in a row and is now roughly where it was in 1996, adjusted for inflation.
The U.S. poverty rate, meanwhile, has continued to rise. America's median household income—what the statistical middle of the pack earns in a year—fell 2.3% to $49,445, adjusted for inflation, according to the Census Bureau's annual snapshot of living standards. The figure has fallen each year since 2007 as high unemployment and a tougher job market has made it harder for working Americans to get bigger paychecks.
This downdraft is part of a longer trend that has wiped out the wage gains of the last decade. Inflation-adjusted household income is now down 7.1% from its peak in 1999, and 2010 is the first time since 1997 that American households made less than a median of $50,000.
A large factor driving the have / have nots has to do with education. In the past (i.e. a long time ago), an individual could use either their hands or their minds and make a "livable" salary. As EconomPic has detailed multiple times, education matters and labor intensive jobs are no longer a viable means for most.
The issue has been amplified because individuals didn't act as if incomes were stagnant. Back to the WSJ.
"The past decade was just a mirage," says Justin Wolfers, an economics professor now visiting at Princeton University. That's because wage gains earlier in the decade were never that robust, yet people were able to take advantage of surging housing values and easy credit to spend more than they earned.
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