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% |
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.