What Has Happened to Middle-Income Households since 1945?

I dug up at the US Census Bureau serveral reports about family and individual income and created a series of graphs plotting the income distribution of households under $100,000 a year adjusted for inflation. (Pages 17, 18, 19 from my Income Guide)

I am defining middle-income households as $30,000-$80,000. One of the stories these graph tell is that for 20+ years after 1945 more households entered the "middle class". However, over the next 40 years, the percent of middle-income households shrank in part because the percent of households with more than $80,000 a year grew. 

Graphs created in OmniGraphSketcher and annotated in Illustrator. Data from the US Census. You take a look at some of the older reports they have online here:

US Census Bureau. “Families and Individual Money Income in the United States: 1945. Table 2.” September 2011. http://www2.census.gov/prod2/popscan/p60-002.pdf.

———. “Income of Families and Persons in the United States: 1950. Table 1.” September 2011.  http://www2.census.gov/prod2/popscan/p60-009.pdf.

———. “Income of Families and Persons in the United States: 1960. Table 5.” September 2011.  http://www2.census.gov/prod2/popscan/p60-037.pdf.

———. “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010. Table A-2.” September 2011. http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf.

Has Middle America's Wages Stagnated?

{Click on the image to take a closer look}

I found a Federal Reserve article that analyzed the change in Average Hourly Earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers. After adjusting for inflation using the Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) {instead of the Consumer Price Index-Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W)} and including an estimate for worker's benefits, the author concluded that workers' hourly earnings (wages plus benefits) actually increased by 16% over 30 years (1975-2005) rather than decreased. Here, I graphed the full history, 1964-2006, but used the approach laid out in the article to show the effect of inflation and benefits. BTW, if you earned $16.76 an hour in 2006 that gave you an annual income of $33,520 (assuming you worked full-time).

See also: Average Income in the United States Total Income of Top, Middle, & Bottom

[tags]income distribution, income inequality, Federal Reserve, wages, middle class[/tags]

Addendum: This was past on to me from a reader who found it on Marginal Revolution

NYTimes: Calculating America's Wealth

The New York Times had an interactive graph that calculated income for different demographic groups. I have plotted people who dropped out of high school (bottom) with people who graduated college (top). It is important to note that the data is adjusted for inflation. What interested me is that not only has the advantages for getting a college degree increased but that the range of income for people with college degrees has increased.

[tags]income distribution, US income distribution, US income inequality, income inequality, New York Times[/tags]