Average annual wages (selected years, 2021 dollars) and percent change in annual wages over time, by wage group, 1979–2021
| Average annual wages (2021$) | Long-term (% change) | Pandemic labor market (% change) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 1979 | 1989 | 2000 | 2007 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 1979–2019 | 1979–2021 | 2020–2021 | 2019–2021 |
| Bottom 90% | $28,415 | $29,289 | $32,770 | $33,814 | $36,655 | $36,660 | $36,571 | 29.0% | 28.7% | -0.2% | -0.2% |
| 90th–99th percentile | $93,226 | $106,915 | $137,938 | $147,705 | $164,760 | $169,455 | $167,639 | 76.7% | 79.8% | -1.1% | 1.7% |
| 90th–95th | $79,140 | $86,520 | $110,104 | $117,084 | $129,259 | $132,401 | $129,724 | 63.3% | 63.9% | -2.0% | 0.4% |
| 95th–99th | $110,833 | $132,409 | $172,730 | $185,981 | $209,137 | $215,771 | $215,032 | 88.7% | 94.0% | -0.3% | 2.8% |
| Top 5% | $142,159 | $194,873 | $270,682 | $288,048 | $308,487 | $322,349 | $335,891 | 117.0% | 136.3% | 4.2% | 8.9% |
| Top 1% | $267,464 | $444,731 | $662,488 | $696,316 | $705,887 | $748,662 | $819,324 | 163.9% | 206.3% | 9.4% | 16.1% |
| 99.0th–99.9th | $232,046 | $341,410 | $444,845 | $474,979 | $499,389 | $521,225 | $542,283 | 115.2% | 133.7% | 4.0% | 8.6% |
| 99.9th–100th | $586,222 | $1,374,624 | $2,621,271 | $2,688,346 | $2,564,364 | $2,795,589 | $3,312,693 | 337.4% | 465.1% | 18.5% | 29.2% |
| Average | $36,639 | $40,430 | $48,532 | $50,689 | $54,877 | $55,731 | $56,195 | 49.8% | 53.4% | 0.8% | 2.4% |
Source: EPI analysis of Kopczuk, Saez, and Song, “Uncovering the American Dream: Inequality and Mobility in Social Security Earnings Data Since 1937” (2007) and Social Security Administration wage statistics.