Change in wage groups' shares of total wages, 1979–2018
| Share of wages | Long-term change | Great Recession | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wage group | 1979 | 2007 | 2009 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 1979–2007 | 1979–2018 | 2007–2009 | 2009–2018 | 2016–2018 | 2007–2018 |
| Bottom 90% | 69.8% | 61.1% | 62.3% | 61.1% | 60.9% | 61.0% | -8.8 | -8.8 | 1.3 | -1.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Top 90th to 99th | 22.8% | 24.9% | 25.5% | 25.8% | 25.7% | 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 | 11.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.4 | -0.1 | -0.1 | 0.2 |
| 95% – 99% | 12.1 | 14.1 | 14.3 | 14.7 | 14.6 | 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% | 27.9% | 8.7 | 8.5 | -1.7 | 1.5 | 0.1 | -0.2 |
| Upper 1% | 7.3% | 14.1% | 12.2% | 13.1% | 13.4% | 13.3% | 6.7 | 6.0 | -1.9 | 1.1 | 0.2 | -0.7 |
| 99.0%–99.9% | 5.7 | 8.4 | 7.9 | 8.3 | 8.3 | 8.2 | 2.7 | 2.6 | -0.5 | 0.4 | 0.0 | -0.2 |
| 99.9% – 100% | 1.6 | 5.7 | 4.3 | 4.8 | 5.2 | 5.1 | 4.0 | 3.4 | -1.4 | 0.8 | 0.2 | -0.6 |
Source: EPI analysis of Kopczuk, Saez and Song (2010) and Social Security Administration wage statistics