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income growth

Thursday 5th of March 2026

American Dream Income beating inflation © 2018 Kwiple.com
Bullshitters say A “giant, beautiful, massive tax cut” for corporations will lead to higher wages for workers  © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Average change in annual earnings for students who attend a vocational program at a public community college: +$1,544 For students who attend one at a for-profit college: –$920 Harper's Index, September 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
By the numbers The average household income for the poorest fifth of households fell by $571 over the decade that ended last year, adjusting for inflation. Over the same period, the average income for the wealthiest fifth of households rose by $13,479, adjusting for inflation. New York Times, September 12, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Between 2016 and 2017 average CEO compensation GREW 18% Average worker compensation GREW 0.2% Mother Jones , November/December 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Daily wage a prisoner in Portland, Oregon, is paid to clear out homeless camps: $1 Harper's Index, November 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Estimated portion of Americans born in 1980 who will go on to earn more than their parents did: 1/2 Of those born in 1940 who did: 9/10 Harper's Index, March 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Gallup poll results, 2013 and 2016, “How much money are you making today, versus five years ago?”   2013 2016 A lot more 27% 31% A little more 31% 37% Total “making more” 58% 68% About the same 14% 11% A little less 10% 7% A lot less 18% 13% Total “making less” 28% 20%  based on data reported in The Washington Spectator, January 1, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Income in the U.S. farm sector will decline for a fourth year this year, falling to $62.3 billion, half of the record $123 billion farmers earned in 2013, the USDA projects. The last time income fell four years in a row was in the mid-1970s. Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Truckers made an average of $38,618 a year in 1980. If wages had just kept pace with inflation, that would be over $114,722 today – but last year the average wage was $41,340.  The Guardian, October 10, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers U.S. farmers this year will collectively earn $9.2 billion less than they did in 2015, and 42% less than they did in 2013, according to the USDA. Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say A secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, PA, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week … she said [that] will more than cover her Costco membership for a year. Paul Ryan, 11:51 AM - Feb 2018, extolling the munificent benefits bestowed on ordinary workers by the tax reform bill he championed  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Income growth An analysis of American wage growth by economists at the New York Federal Reserve showed that the bulk of earnings growth took place between the ages of 25 and 35; on average, after the age of 45 only the top 2% of lifetime earners see any earnings growth. So it is vital for people to move quickly into work once qualified and to hold on to jobs once they get them. Economist, January 14, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Income growth Average pretax incomes, 1970 to 2000 Group 1970-2000 % change Bottom $27,060 90% $27,035 −0.1% Top 90% $80,148 to 95% $103,860 +29.6% Top 95% $115,472 to 99% $178,067 +54.2% Top 99% $202,792 to 99.5% $384,192 +89.5% Top 99.5% $317,582 to 99.9% $777,450 +144.8% Top 99.9% $722,480 to 99,99% $3,049,226 +322.0% Top 13,400 $3,641,285 households $23,969,767 +558.3%  In 2000 dollars. Based on data from Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez © 2016 Kwiple.com
Income growth Average weekly wages for America's production workers were actually lower in December 2020 ($860) than they had been, after adjusting for inflation, in December 1972 ($902 in today’s money). Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, May 1, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Income growth Between 1978 and 2011,  CEO compensation grew by 876 percent, while that of the typical private-sector worker rose by just 5.4 percent. Ronald P. Formisano, Pluutocracy in America © 2017 Kwiple.com
Income growth Between 1979 and 2007, income growth in the United States — all of it! — went to the richest 10 percent of earners; the  remaining 90 percent saw their income fall. Examining the distribition of gains, the Congressional Budget Office found that the  income of the top 1 percent rose by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007, after federal taxes and government transfer payments such as Social Security. Over the same period, the incomes of the broad middle class — the 60 percent of the population in the middle of the income scale — grew by only 40 percent. And the bottom quintile fared the worst, rising by only 18 percent. Joshua Green, in Rebels © 2024 Kwiple.com
Income growth Democratic administrations have since 1948 presided over income gains that dimish as you move up  the income scale, while Republican administrations have presided over income gains that diminish as you move down the income scale. Timothy Noah, The Great Divergence © 2015 Kwiple.com
Income growth Despite the robust figures [for hiring by US companies] , year-on-year wage growth flatlined at 2.7 percent. The latest year-on-year reading for the consumer price index is 2.9 per cent, meaning that even as they report shortages of candidates, companies are increasing pay more slowly than the cost of living is rising. Financial Times, August 5-6, 2018 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Income growth I'll tell you a story. In 1981, when I was in college, I worked as a casual dockworker, a teamster job. I made $13.13 an hour. My mom knew the terminal manager. I could call him up and get two-day weekend shifts. You know, favored. I went back there five years ago. You know what they started me at? Ten-fifty. Thirty ’effin years later! It's bullshit. Prnnsylvania construction worker quoted in The Gilded Rage, by ALexander Zaitchik © 2016 Kwiple.com
Income growth If there is an explanation as to why U.S. middle-class incomes have stagnated this is it: whatever jobs the United States is able to create are in the least efficient parts of the economy, the types that neither computers, nor China, have yet found a way of eliminating. That trend is starting to lap at the feet of more educated American workers. Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Raise the federal amount of earnings at which workers become legally ineligible for overtime pay from $23,660/year to $75,400/year © 2015 Kwiple.com
Manufacturing By one measure, the average manufacturing worker in the United States earned nine per cent less in 2015 than the average worker in 1973, while the economy over all grew by two hundred per cent. Sheelah Kolhatkar, New Yorker, October 23, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Rural America Since 2010 the amount of bad debt at rural hospitals has jumped 50%, according to the National Rural Health Association. It sets a vicious cycle in motion:  A depressed economy leads to unpaid bills; unpaid bills lead to hospital closures; the closures strip the local economy of higher-wage jobs; and the economy gets more depressed.  The National Institutes of Health estimates that when a rural hospital closes, per capita income in the surrounding county dips an average of 4%. BloombergBusinesswork, January 28, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say Higher productivity results in higher wages © 2016 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say Lower unemployment results in higher wages  © 2016 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say Wages keep pace with productivity gains © 2017 Kwiple.com
State of the union c Labor can't strike, but capital goes on investment strikes by threatening to move if its demands for wage cuts, tax cuts, subsidies, negligent regulatory regimes, union-free workplaces and judicial toadies aren't met © 2017 Kwiple.com
State of the union Starting wages becoming ending wages as nonmonetary “bonuses” replace incremental wage raises © 2015 Kwiple.com
State of the union With the unions went the wages © 2015 Kwiple.com
Surveillance Nothing except unionization or new laws would stop an employer from taking all the data it is gathering from sensors and  recordings and using them to more precisely adjust wages, until each worker gets the  lowest wage a which they are willing to work, and all workers live in fear of retaliation. This is no more sci-fi than Facebook and Google serving users individualized content and ads designed to keep us on their services as long as possible, allowing them to sell as many ads as possible. Zephyr Teachout, New York Review of Books, Augsut 18, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Surveillance Tracking technology may be marketed as tools to protect people, but will end up being used to identify with precision how little each worker is willing to make. It will be used to depress wages and also kill the camaderie that precedes union- ization by making it harder to connect with other workers, poisoning the community that enables democratic debate.  It will be used to disrupt solidarity by paying  workers differently. And it will lead to anxiety and fear permeating more workplaces, as the fog of not knowing why you got a bonus or demotion shapes the day. Zephyr Teachout, New York Review of Books, Augsut 18, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Teachers Earlier this year the N.E.A. reported that when adjusted for inflation,  “the average salary of teachers has actually declined by an estimated 6.4 percent, or $3,644, over the past decade.” New York Times, September 13, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
 
Where did income growth go? 1935 to 1997 to 1980 2012  To top 1 % 7 % 72 % To 95–99 % 12 % 19 % To 90–95 % 11 % 9 % To bottom 90 % 70 % 0 % TOTAL: 100 % 100 %  The trickle-up truth; not the trickle-down bullshit. (Based on Economic Policy Institute data) (0 % represents average decline of $2,868) © 2015 Kwiple.com