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US: Wage Statistics for 2010
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    Fifty percent of U.S. workers earned less than $26,364 last year, reflecting a growing income gap between the nation's rich and poor, the government reported Thursday.

    There were fewer jobs, and overall pay was trending down — except for the nation's wealthiest. The number of people making $1 million or more soared by over 18 percent from 2009, the Social Security Administration said, citing payroll data based on W-2 forms submitted by employers to the Internal Revenue Service.

    Despite population growth, the number of Americans with jobs fell again last year, with total employment of just under 150.4 million — down from 150.9 million in 2009 and 155.4 million in 2008. In all, there were 5.2 million fewer jobs than in 2007, when the deep recession began, according to the IRS data.


    The figures are just one more indication of the toll that the worst downturn since the Great Depression has taken on the U.S. economy. They were published as demonstrations rage on Wall Street and in cities across the nation protesting a widening income gulf between average wage earners and the nation's wealthiest.

    The unemployment rate remains stuck at 9.1 percent, with more than 14 million out of work and 11 million other discouraged people who have stopped looking for work or are stuck in part-time jobs. Since 1980, roughly 5 percent of annual national income has shifted from the middle class to the nation's richest households, according to the Census Bureau.

    While the average U.S income last year was $39,959, the mean income — the figure where half earn more and half earn less — was much lower, $26,364. This disparity reflects the fact that "the distribution of workers by wage level is highly skewed," according to Social Security.

    Median compensation last year was just 66 percent of the average income, compared with nearly 72 percent in 1980.

    Link to report: http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2010
  • 5 Replies sorted by
  • StormlotusStormlotus
    As far as I'm concerned this is great. Maybe people will finally start to take responsibility for their survival, instead of letting the government run their lives.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    @Stormlotus

    I suggest to look at back posts on this blog.
    Your position is not really new :-) Unfortunately, survival theory do not work for any big numbers :-)
  • StormlotusStormlotus
    I did not mean that unemployment will somehow fix our problems. I just think perhaps knowing what it's like to starve for a while can do people some good.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    >I just think perhaps knowing what it's like to starve for a while can do people some good.

    :-)
    And I said what such thing do not work in big numbers or whole countries.
    Real income decrease happens today and makes impact to the ones who work hard as it becomes harder to sell anything.
  • StormlotusStormlotus
    You're probably right. I'm sure you know a lot more from your age and location. (EDIT: Age yes, location... I really have no idea that was just a guess.)

    So... they are forced to come up with new ways to innovate product and sell, at least that's supposed to be the idea. But what really happens when you put people under great stress?

    If they are intelligent and generally a good person, maybe they will try their best to solve the problem creatively, maybe not.

    But what of the people that would instantly turn to lying, cheating, and stealing in order to fix their problem?

    I have no idea what anyone could do about that. You can't force people to act virtuously, unless you control them so tightly they have no other choice.
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