Change in wage groups' shares of total wages, 1979–2017

Percentage point change Percentage point change
Share of wages  Long-term change Great Recession
Wage group 1979 2007 2009 2016 2017 1979–2007 1979–2017 2007–09 2009–17 2016–17 2007–17
Bottom 90% 69.8% 61.1% 62.3% 61.1% 60.9% -8.8 -8.9 1.3 -1.4 -0.2 -0.2
Top 90th to 99th 22.8% 24.9% 25.5% 25.8% 25.7% 2.0 2.8 0.6 0.2 -0.2 0.8
90%–95% 10.8% 10.8% 11.2% 11.2% 11.1% 0.1 0.3 0.4 -0.1 -0.1 0.3
95%–99% 12.1% 14.1% 14.3% 14.7% 14.6% 2.0 2.5 0.2 0.3 -0.1 0.5
Upper 5% 19.4% 28.1% 26.5% 27.8% 28.0% 8.7 8.6 -1.7 1.6 0.2 -0.1
Upper 1% 7.3% 14.1% 12.2% 13.1% 13.4% 6.7 6.1 -1.9 1.3 0.3 -0.6
99.0%–99.9% 5.7% 8.4% 7.9% 8.3% 8.3% 2.7 2.6 -0.5 0.4 0.0 -0.1
99.9%–100% 1.6% 5.7% 4.3% 4.8% 5.2% 4.0 3.5 -1.4 0.9 0.3 -0.5

Source: EPI analysis of Kopczuk, Saez and Song (2010) and Social Security Administration wage statistics

View the underlying data on epi.org.