Average annual wages and percent change in annual wages over time, by wage group, 1979–2023

Average annual wages (2023 dollars) Long-term change Pandemic business cycle change
Year 1979 1989 2000 2007 2019 2022 2023 1979–2019 1979–2023 2022–2023 2019–2023
Bottom 90% $29,953 $30,927 $34,618 $36,570 $40,988 $42,658 $43,035 36.8% 43.7% 0.9% 5.0%
90th–99th percentile $98,269 $112,894 $145,717 $159,743 $184,234 $191,658 $190,422 87.5% 93.8% -0.6% 3.4%
90th–95th percentile $83,421 $91,359 $116,313 $126,626 $144,537 $149,187 $148,812 73.3% 78.4% -0.3% 3.0%
95th–99th percentile $116,828 $139,814 $182,471 $201,138 $233,855 $244,747 $242,434 100.2% 107.5% -0.9% 3.7%
Upper 5% $149,849 $205,771 $285,946 $311,523 $344,947 $359,970 $352,773 130.2% 135.4% -2.0% 2.3%
Upper 1% $281,932 $469,603 $699,846 $753,063 $789,317 $820,863 $794,129 180.0% 181.7% -3.3% 0.6%
99.0th⁠–⁠99.9th percentile $244,599 $360,503 $469,930 $513,688 $558,413 $585,123 $570,687 128.3% 133.3% -2.5% 2.2%
99.9th–100th percentile $617,934 $1,451,500 $2,769,087 $2,907,434 $2,867,452 $2,942,523 $2,805,105 364.0% 353.9% -4.7% -2.2%
Average $38,621  $42,691  $51,269  $54,820  $61,363  $63,850  $63,810  58.9% 65.2% -0.1% 4.0%
View the underlying data on epi.org.