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Joint Economic Committee Democrats
Income Charts
Chart 1.7
Last updated 6/1/06
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The real (inflation-adjusted) wage and salary income of the top 10 percent of filing units increased by almost 34 percent between 1972 and 2001, according to Internal Revenue Service data. However, the real wage and salary income of the top 0.01 percent was almost 6 times greater in 2001 than it was in 1972.
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In contrast, real wage and salary income in the middle of the distribution fell during the 1970s, stagnated through the 1980s and much of the 1990s, and regained only its early 1970s level as a result of the strong economy in the late 1990s.
Sources: Joint Economic Committee Democrats, based on data from Ian Dew-Becker and Robert J. Gordon, “Where Did the Productivity Growth Go? Inflation Dynamics and the Distribution of Income,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 11842, December 2005. Click here for more information about the sources of income data.
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