Maybe you know this, maybe you don't. For most of the economic expansion following the Great Recession, wages grew about the same for everyone. In 2019 that changed. Over the past five years, incomes of the poor have increased 10% while incomes of the rich have stagnated:
There's no need to feel sorry for the rich, though. They have lots of investment income too, and the stock market has been going gangbusters recently. They're still doing OK.
But, but, I thought poor people in this country have never had it worse than now?
Could it be that the Republicans, and idiot left-wing Democrats, and the always stupid media, are not telling us the truth? Or does one anecdote about my poor cousin who is working 15 jobs to make ends meet trump all data?
IF one goes from ca. minimum wage and makes $8/hr that goes to $9/hour--they're doing better and still do not have enough to live on.
States that have upped their minimum wage laws saw bigger jumps and have lifted more people out of extreme poverty and poverty. The refundable child tax credit really helped at the low end too but that ended.
IF I recall properly, the people in bottom 5% did better, percentage wise, that the next 5%.
Now do a chart of the share of wealth of the top 1% of Americans over time.
You are confusing the top tenth with the top 1%. Most of us in the top tenth don't have significant investment income, and the recent minor improvement in the stock market hasn't recovered our losses, especially inflation adjusted.
I'd guess most in top 10% have 401K's (or 403K's) or IRA's unless they have a government job. The loss of traditional retirement packages mean many more are invested in the stock market--and people do track their retirement funds, especially as they get older.
At least with federal government jobs there is something called tsp (Thrift Savings Plan) with various funds to choose from - individual and lifecycle. The total expense ratios are around .05%. Sort of like a 401k I guess. There is some employer contribution. After you retire at some point there are mandatory payments to the retiree of a few thousand dollars a year, at least in my case.
I think most people in the top 10 percent have some investments or some sort of 401k retirement plan. In the past year, the Dow is up 13%, the S and P is up 20% and the NASDAQ over 30%.
The fact that our economy is not perfect, that the gains for the non rich should have been much better over the past 50 years should not be held against the Biden administration which has done more to reverse the trend than anyone expected and that should be shouted from the rooftops to drown out the constant negativity from most of our media.
Everyone below the top 1% is basically getting the shaft. We're just arguing about how deep.
The top 1% is those earning $820,000 or more. The top 5% is those earning $350,000 or more. I'm fairly certain that people earning half a million dollars -- which would leave them outside the top% -- are not "basically getting the shaft."
Is the just wages or does it also reflect government services geared toward the poor?
And agreed on the 1% vs. the rest of the 10%. Very, very different realities. Although, the 1% are likely better at making income effectively disappear.
I'd note that the top 10% excluding the top 0.5% (basically, household income from $150K to $1 million) tend to buy a lot of lower-income labor. And the Trump tax "cuts" were significantly progressive, and increased taxes considerably on the classic "two-income couple with children in a nice suburb."
These are both in my opinion good things - but "my income is not going up, but the stuff I buy is getting much more expensive" being widely the case for the top 10% is a significant portion of why inflation gets so much attention.
This comparison is fairly meaningless without a detailed definition of "wages". Few in the top 1% are getting weekly "wages" so this measure must include salaries. Top executives typically get a lot of their compensation in stock options. Are performance bonuses included in "wages"?
Jeff Bezos seems to have been getting a little over $80k in salary for some time, but obviously this does not describe his income.
Or Steve Balmer, retired former Microsoft employee.
https://www.cnn.com/business/investing/steve-ballmer-one-billion-dividends/index.html
Given how good the recovery and ongoing job market has been for lower income Americans, its surprising how little anyone seems to care about this fact.
Of course this is not surprising from those who have always had open disdain for low income Americans....but it has been surprising how many were just pretending to care about these Americans in the past.