Change in wage groups' shares of total wages, 1979–2019

Share of wages Change in share (ppt.)
Long-term Over 2007–2019 business cycle
Wage group 1979 2007 2009 2018 2019 1979–2007 1979–2019 2007–2009 2009–2019 2018–2019 2007–2019
Bottom 90% 69.8% 61.1% 62.3% 61.0% 60.9% -8.8 -8.9 1.3 -1.4 -0.1 -0.2
90th–99th 22.8% 24.9% 25.5% 25.7% 25.9% 2.0 3.1 0.6 0.4 0.3 1.1
90th–95th 10.8% 10.8% 11.2% 11.1% 11.3% 0.1 0.5 0.4 0.1 0.2 0.5
95th–99th 12.1% 14.1% 14.3% 14.6% 14.6% 2.0 2.6 0.2 0.4 0.0 0.6
Upper 5% 19.4% 28.1% 26.5% 27.9% 27.8% 8.7 8.4 -1.7 1.5 -0.1 -0.3
Upper 1% 7.3% 14.1% 12.2% 13.3% 13.2% 6.7 5.9 -1.9 1.0 -0.1 -0.9
99.0th–⁠99.9th 5.7% 8.4% 7.9% 8.2% 8.2% 2.7 2.5 -0.5 0.4 -0.1 -0.2
99.9th–100th 1.6% 5.7% 4.3% 5.1% 5.0% 4.0 3.4 -1.4 0.7 0.0 -0.6

Source: EPI analysis of Kopczuk, Saez and Song (2007) and Social Security Administration wage statistics.

View the underlying data on epi.org.