Bottom 80 percent has lost ground even as their tax rates have been cut: Pretax income of bottom 80 percent of households as a share of average overall income, and their effective tax rate
| Year | Average tax rate, household-weighted | Average tax rate, income-weighted | Ratio of bottom 80 percent income to overall income |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 5.4% | 7.087735% | 0.717207 |
| 1980 | 5.8 | 7.588673 | 0.715819 |
| 1981 | 6.1 | 7.954389 | 0.713154 |
| 1982 | 5.5 | 7.157304 | 0.702456 |
| 1983 | 5 | 6.488404 | 0.685827 |
| 1984 | 5 | 6.442562 | 0.686289 |
| 1985 | 5 | 6.422246 | 0.675587 |
| 1986 | 4.9 | 6.404339 | 0.64726 |
| 1987 | 4.2 | 5.68925 | 0.663489 |
| 1988 | 4.1 | 5.728361 | 0.645862 |
| 1989 | 4 | 5.654475 | 0.64953 |
| 1990 | 4.2 | 5.732139 | 0.659244 |
| 1991 | 3.9 | 5.434177 | 0.667931 |
| 1992 | 3.5 | 5.148332 | 0.654027 |
| 1993 | 3.4 | 5.020233 | 0.658211 |
| 1994 | 2.9 | 4.748616 | 0.65448 |
| 1995 | 2.9 | 4.735474 | 0.650316 |
| 1996 | 2.7 | 4.68494 | 0.634896 |
| 1997 | 2.8 | 4.850235 | 0.622079 |
| 1998 | 2.5 | 4.545549 | 0.613359 |
| 1999 | 2.5 | 4.627029 | 0.602273 |
| 2000 | 2.6 | 4.732896 | 0.590393 |
| 2001 | 1.6 | 3.619679 | 0.62284 |
| 2002 | 1.3 | 3.262605 | 0.636236 |
| 2003 | 0.6 | 2.548484 | 0.627759 |
| 2004 | 0.7 | 2.623514 | 0.612903 |
| 2005 | 0.6 | 2.577195 | 0.592456 |
| 2006 | 0.7 | 2.654884 | 0.582065 |
| 2007 | 0.8 | 2.831059 | 0.583025 |
| 2008 | -1.4 | 0.892411 | 0.610309 |
| 2009 | -1.5 | 0.817591 | 0.635789 |
| 2010 | -1.2 | 1.127753 | 0.621795 |
| 2011 | -0.2 | 2.059462 | 0.622423 |
| 2012 | -0.1 | 2.179478 | 0.59292 |
| 2013 | 0.1 | 2.33156 | 0.614271 |
Notes: Income of the bottom 80 percent is a simple average of CBO income data for the bottom four fifths of the income distribution. The average of the bottom 80 percent incomes is then divided by the overall average income reported by CBO. Effective income tax rates are both weighted by households and by incomes.
Source: Author’s analysis of data from the Congressional Budget Office, The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2013, 2016