The U.S. middle class has faced a huge 'inequality tax' in recent decades: Household income of the broad middle class, actual and projected assuming it grew at overall average rate, 1979–2011

Actual Projected
1979/01/01 $ 61,542.17 $ 61,542.17
1980/01/01 $ 59,460.37 $ 59,579.37
1981/01/01 $ 59,210.54 $ 59,456.53
1982/01/01 $ 58,036.98 $ 59,071.83
1983/01/01 $ 57,202.97 $ 59,479.82
1984/01/01 $ 60,446.87 $ 62,779.71
1985/01/01 $ 60,428.61 $ 63,811.15
1986/01/01 $ 62,282.04 $ 68,495.45
1987/01/01 $ 61,406.97 $ 66,243.89
1988/01/01 $ 62,294.60 $ 69,102.25
1989/01/01 $ 63,153.24 $ 69,773.54
1990/01/01 $ 63,356.58 $ 69,050.00
1991/01/01 $ 62,372.76 $ 67,405.82
1992/01/01 $ 62,736.36 $ 69,303.97
1993/01/01 $ 63,537.30 $ 69,703.89
1994/01/01 $ 63,937.79 $ 70,532.26
1995/01/01 $ 65,895.09 $ 73,271.98
1996/01/01 $ 66,618.03 $ 75,655.23
1997/01/01 $ 67,717.28 $ 78,559.19
1998/01/01 $ 70,025.47 $ 82,314.50
1999/01/01 $ 71,827.31 $ 85,754.07
2000/01/01 $ 71,685.32 $ 87,083.66
2001/01/01 $ 71,738.64 $ 82,561.12
2002/01/01 $ 70,107.92 $ 79,126.24
2003/01/01 $ 70,232.82 $ 80,397.74
2004/01/01 $ 72,563.23 $ 85,031.93
2005/01/01 $ 73,700.24 $ 89,259.28
2006/01/01 $ 74,417.13 $ 91,994.00
2007/01/01 $ 76,442.90 $ 94,310.00
2008/01/01 $ 73,539.98 $ 86,971.41
2009/01/01 $ 72,708.64 $ 82,490.43
2010/01/01 $ 72,875.68 $ 84,737.13
2011/01/01 $ 72,036.33 $ 83,665.79

 

Note: Data show average income of households in the 20th–80th percentile.

Source: EPI analysis of Congressional Budget Office data

Reproduced from Figure I in Raising America’s Pay: Why It’s Our Central Economic Policy Challenge

Source: EPI analysis of data from The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2011, the Congressional Budget Office, 2014.

Reproduced from Figure I in Raising America’s Pay: Why It’s Our Central Economic Policy Challenge, by Josh Bivens, Elise Gould, Lawrence Mishel, and Heidi Shierholz, Economic Policy Institute, 2014.

View the underlying data on epi.org.