Disproportionate wage growth since 2000 for those at the top has contributed to widening inequality among men in the workforce: Cumulative percent change in real hourly wages of men, by wage percentile, 2000–2019
| Year | 10th | 50th | 90th | 95th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2001 | 3.1% | 0.7% | 2.2% | 2.2% |
| 2002 | 2.8% | 2.1% | 4.6% | 4.4% |
| 2003 | 2.0% | 2.4% | 4.3% | 5.1% |
| 2004 | 2.5% | 0.6% | 5.4% | 7.5% |
| 2005 | 0.5% | -1.6% | 4.3% | 6.0% |
| 2006 | 1.1% | -0.3% | 5.2% | 6.3% |
| 2007 | 1.1% | 0.1% | 5.2% | 7.6% |
| 2008 | -0.2% | 0.0% | 6.3% | 8.8% |
| 2009 | 0.9% | 2.8% | 9.7% | 14.8% |
| 2010 | 0.6% | 0.4% | 9.5% | 13.8% |
| 2011 | -1.8% | -2.1% | 7.6% | 11.0% |
| 2012 | -2.4% | -1.6% | 8.6% | 16.5% |
| 2013 | -2.0% | -2.6% | 9.8% | 15.1% |
| 2014 | -0.9% | -3.5% | 7.6% | 13.1% |
| 2015 | 0.5% | -0.2% | 14.2% | 23.2% |
| 2016 | 7.1% | 0.9% | 13.1% | 29.9% |
| 2017 | 6.7% | 2.3% | 15.2% | 27.3% |
| 2018 | 5.9% | 0.8% | 17.1% | 34.2% |
| 2019 | 11.9% | 3.4% | 19.9% | 37.1% |
Notes: The xth-percentile wage is the wage at which x% of wage earners earn less and (100–x)% earn more. The 95th-percentile men’s wage is imputed using the growth rates of the 93rd and 94th percentiles from recent years as needed, since the weekly earnings top code continues to capture a large and growing share of the men’s wage distribution, making it difficult to accurately measure top-level wages. For more information on this issue, see Gould’s State of Working America Wages 2018 (2019).
Source: Author’s analysis of EPI Current Population Survey Extracts, Version 1.0 (2020), https://microdata.epi.org
This chart appears in:
Previous chart: « Estimated percentage-point understatement of CPS-derived unemployment rate, 2001–2002 and 2017–2018