Despite the pandemic, wage growth held firm for most U.S. workers, with little effect on inequality
Earnings overall have held steady through the pandemic in part because lower-wage workers experienced steeper job losses.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Earnings overall have held steady through the pandemic in part because lower-wage workers experienced steeper job losses.
Over the past 50 years, the highest-earning 20% of U.S. households have steadily brought in a larger share of the country’s total income.
Seven-in-ten U.S. adults say the U.S. economic system unfairly favors powerful interests. Less than a third say the system is generally fair.
Black adults are particularly likely to say slavery continues to have an impact: More than eight-in-ten say this is the case.
Millennials are the largest adult generation in the United States, and the American family continues to change.
Income inequality nearly doubled among Asians in the U.S. from 1970 to 2016. Sizable income gaps persist across racial and ethnic groups, a new study finds.
Despite some ups and downs over the past several decades, today’s real average wage in the U.S. has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago. And most of what wage gains there have been have flowed to the highest-paid tier of workers.
While the size of the U.S. middle class remained relatively stable between 2002 and 2016, financial gains for middle-income Americans were modest compared with those of higher-income households.
In the U.S., the racial and ethnic wealth gap has evolved differently for families at different income levels since the Great Recession.
The American middle class is smaller than middle classes across Western Europe, but its income is higher.
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