In the 1980s and 1990s Measured Household Income
Has Stagnated for the Non-Rich
At the end of the 1990s, the measured household income
of those in the bottom fifth of the American income distribution
averaged less than the household income of their predecessors
at the start of the 1980s.
At the end of the 1990s, the measured household income
of those in the middle fifth of the American income distribution
averaged only five percent morethan the household income of their
predecessors at the start of the 1980s.
Yet the measured household income of the highest fifth of
Americans at the end of the 1990s was some 40% higher than that
of their predecessors two decades before.
Problems in measurement make it very likely that measured
household income growth understates true household income growth:
we have probably seen only real wage stagnation, not real wage
decline, in the past two decades among groups like white blue-collar
workers in America.
Nevertheless the remarkably increased spread of incomes in
the U.S. over the past two decades is a potential political fault
line. The "new economy" is almost surely not responsible
for it; but it may well be blamed for it.
Source: Robert Atkinson and Ranolph
Court (1999), "The New Economy Index" (Washington:
PPI); http://www.neweconomyindex.org/
