Tag: Middle Class income

Without Strong Unions, Middle-Class Families Bring Home a Smaller Share

The following article by Alex Rowell and David Madland was posted on the Center for American Progress website September 14, 2017:

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that in 2016, the median U.S. household earned $59,039, a 3.2 percent increase from the previous year. Seven years after the end of the Great Recession, the median household’s income has approximately recovered to its pre-recession level, when adjusted for inflation, but has effectively remained stagnant since the late 1990s.

Middle-class households are not seeing the high levels of income growth that are being enjoyed by America’s highest-income earners. Furthermore, the share of income that is earned by the middle 60 percent of households, by income, has fallen to record lows. A revitalized union movement could help reverse the decades-long trend of growing inequality and a shrinking middle class. But anti-union attacks at the state and national levels threaten to further tilt our nation’s economy against workers. Continue reading “Without Strong Unions, Middle-Class Families Bring Home a Smaller Share”

Middle class incomes had their fastest growth on record last year

Democrats bad for the economy?  They’ll just tax and spend and that will hurt average people?  Not so much by the look of it:

The following article by Jim Tankersley was posted on the Washington Post website September 13, 2016:

16-09-13-wapo-middle-class-chart

The incomes of typical Americans rose in 2015 by 5.2  percent, the first significant boost to middle-class pay since the end of the Great Recession and the fastest increase ever recorded by the federal government, the Census Bureau reported on Tuesday morning.

In addition, the poverty rate fell by 1.2 percentage points, the steepest decline since 1968. There were 43.1 million Americans in poverty on the year, 3.5 million fewer than in 2014.

The share of Americans who lack health insurance continued a years-long decline, falling 1.3 percentage points, to 9.1 percent.

The numbers, from the government’s annual report on income, poverty and health insurance, suggest the recovery from recession is finally beginning to lift the fortunes of large swaths of American workers and families. Continue reading “Middle class incomes had their fastest growth on record last year”