Oct 27, 2015 Economy

More Than Half of U.S. Wage Earners Make Under $30,000 a Year, According to a Shocking New Report

*We can probably all agree now that the wealth gap in the U.S. has pretty much turned into a gaping abyss. (Shutterstock)*

Wage statistics for 2014, recently released by the Social Security Administration, provide proof to the claim we all feared was true: The middle class is actually disappearing. As the online publication Washington’s Blog notes, 51 percent of U.S. workers in 2014 made less than $2,500 a month before taxes — which is below the poverty line for a family of five. What’s worse is that as the numbers in the original report are parsed, other stunning facts become clear. For instance, the fact that nearly 40 percent of Americans aren’t even making $30,000 but rather are earning closer to $20,000. Or that 70 percent of workers made less than $50,000 in 2014.

All of this just illustrates in vivid detail how far the wealth gap in the U.S. has widened. We’ve gotten to the point where the majority of U.S. citizens are barely making enough to make ends meet, and let’s face it, most aren’t even scraping by.

Michael Snyder explains in his post for Washington’s Blog how these numbers don’t even paint the full picture of income inequality in this country:

The federal poverty level for a family of five is $28,410, and yet almost 40 percent of all American workers do not even bring in $20,000 a year.

If you worked a full-time job at $10 an hour all year long with two weeks off, you would make approximately $20,000. This should tell you something about the quality of the jobs that our economy is producing at this point.

And of course [the numbers in the SSA report] are only for those that are actually working. As I discussed just recently, there are 7.9 million working age Americans that are “officially unemployed” right now and another 94.7 million working age Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force”. When you add those two numbers together, you get a grand total of 102.6 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now.

The SSA report is reprinted in full, below.

—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata

Wage Statistics for 2014

The national average wage index (AWI) is based on
compensation (wages, tips, and the like) subject to Federal income taxes, as reported
by employers on Forms W-2. Beginning with the AWI for 1991, compensation includes
contributions to deferred compensation plans, but excludes certain distributions from
plans where the distributions are included in the reported compensation subject to
income taxes. We call the result of including contributions, and excluding certain
distributions, net compensation. The table below summarizes the components of
net compensation for 2014.

**Net compensation components for 2014**
Compensation subject to Federal income taxes	$6,797,372,805,419.35
Deferred compensation plan Contributions^a Distributions^b	+ 255,336,805,992.78 – 2,450,397,767.58
Net compensation	7,050,259,213,644.55

^aWages on which contributions were paid by 53,592,754 workers.
^bDistributions, to the extent included in reported wages
(see text above), paid to 60,572 workers.

The “raw” average wage, computed as net compensation divided by
the number of wage earners, is $7,050,259,213,644.55 divided by 158,186,786, or $44,569.20.
Based on data in the table below, about 67.2 percent of wage earners had
net compensation less than or equal to the $44,569.20 raw average wage.

By definition, 50 percent of wage earners had net compensation less than or
equal to the median wage, which is estimated to be
$28,851.21 for 2014.

**Distribution of wage earners by level of net compensation**
Net compensation interval	Number	Cumulative number	Percent of total	Aggregate amount	Average amount
	Wage earners			Net compensation
$0.01 — 4,999.99	22,574,440	22,574,440	14.27075	$46,647,919,125.68	$2,066.40
5,000.00 — 9,999.99	13,848,841	36,423,281	23.02549	102,586,913,092.61	7,407.62
10,000.00 — 14,999.99	12,329,270	48,752,551	30.81961	153,566,802,438.45	12,455.47
15,000.00 — 19,999.99	11,505,776	60,258,327	38.09315	200,878,198,035.07	17,458.90
20,000.00 — 24,999.99	10,918,555	71,176,882	44.99547	245,317,570,246.88	22,467.95
25,000.00 — 29,999.99	10,192,863	81,369,745	51.43903	279,865,461,187.05	27,457.00
30,000.00 — 34,999.99	9,487,840	90,857,585	57.43690	307,828,947,411.16	32,444.58
35,000.00 — 39,999.99	8,578,215	99,435,800	62.85974	321,200,755,103.44	37,443.78
40,000.00 — 44,999.99	7,553,972	106,989,772	67.63509	320,563,569,965.15	42,436.43
45,000.00 — 49,999.99	6,542,882	113,532,654	71.77126	310,391,706,424.23	47,439.60
50,000.00 — 54,999.99	5,723,269	119,255,923	75.38931	300,016,377,448.51	52,420.46
55,000.00 — 59,999.99	4,846,517	124,102,440	78.45310	278,354,367,841.41	57,433.90
60,000.00 — 64,999.99	4,201,232	128,303,672	81.10897	262,203,932,128.68	62,411.20
65,000.00 — 69,999.99	3,573,471	131,877,143	83.36799	240,948,179,180.40	67,426.93
70,000.00 — 74,999.99	3,094,739	134,971,882	85.32437	224,145,278,103.36	72,427.85
75,000.00 — 79,999.99	2,684,481	137,656,363	87.02140	207,853,372,824.62	77,427.77
80,000.00 — 84,999.99	2,297,338	139,953,701	88.47370	189,370,862,869.17	82,430.56
85,000.00 — 89,999.99	1,975,400	141,929,101	89.72248	172,719,042,418.70	87,434.97
90,000.00 — 94,999.99	1,714,370	143,643,471	90.80624	158,442,931,588.44	92,420.50
95,000.00 — 99,999.99	1,486,636	145,130,107	91.74604	144,858,203,365.61	97,440.26
100,000.00 — 104,999.99	1,309,068	146,439,175	92.57358	134,083,282,259.67	102,426.52
105,000.00 — 109,999.99	1,117,128	147,556,303	93.27979	120,020,513,136.11	107,436.67
110,000.00 — 114,999.99	977,055	148,533,358	93.89745	109,855,105,705.14	112,434.93
115,000.00 — 119,999.99	865,889	149,399,247	94.44483	101,693,061,676.62	117,443.53
120,000.00 — 124,999.99	773,339	150,172,586	94.93371	94,660,281,091.31	122,404.64
125,000.00 — 129,999.99	673,971	150,846,557	95.35977	85,886,152,964.93	127,433.01
130,000.00 — 134,999.99	595,827	151,442,384	95.73643	78,899,843,713.01	132,420.73
135,000.00 — 139,999.99	527,341	151,969,725	96.06980	72,476,546,845.30	137,437.72
140,000.00 — 144,999.99	466,992	152,436,717	96.36501	66,519,743,635.12	142,443.00
145,000.00 — 149,999.99	419,003	152,855,720	96.62989	61,787,674,520.19	147,463.56
150,000.00 — 154,999.99	384,581	153,240,301	96.87301	58,607,775,121.57	152,393.84
155,000.00 — 159,999.99	335,391	153,575,692	97.08503	52,801,735,517.69	157,433.37
160,000.00 — 164,999.99	296,048	153,871,740	97.27218	48,087,213,596.86	162,430.46
165,000.00 — 169,999.99	265,309	154,137,049	97.43990	44,426,198,104.69	167,450.78
170,000.00 — 174,999.99	239,515	154,376,564	97.59131	41,304,379,348.95	172,450.07
175,000.00 — 179,999.99	216,255	154,592,819	97.72802	38,370,042,895.27	177,429.62
180,000.00 — 184,999.99	200,592	154,793,411	97.85483	36,588,064,085.78	182,400.42
185,000.00 — 189,999.99	179,005	154,972,416	97.96799	33,554,727,208.93	187,451.34
190,000.00 — 194,999.99	165,277	155,137,693	98.07247	31,807,897,759.84	192,452.05
195,000.00 — 199,999.99	154,070	155,291,763	98.16987	30,425,466,536.83	197,478.20
200,000.00 — 249,999.99	1,039,897	156,331,660	98.82726	230,863,458,226.21	222,006.08
250,000.00 — 299,999.99	565,105	156,896,765	99.18450	153,945,762,663.99	272,419.75
300,000.00 — 349,999.99	333,584	157,230,349	99.39537	107,708,119,615.81	322,881.55
350,000.00 — 399,999.99	219,923	157,450,272	99.53440	82,117,070,706.61	373,390.10
400,000.00 — 449,999.99	151,162	157,601,434	99.62996	63,997,346,472.50	423,369.28
450,000.00 — 499,999.99	108,881	157,710,315	99.69879	51,583,042,398.64	473,756.14
500,000.00 — 999,999.99	345,935	158,056,250	99.91748	230,331,407,862.96	665,822.79
1,000,000.00 — 1,499,999.99	65,548	158,121,798	99.95892	78,672,933,288.58	1,200,233.92
1,500,000.00 — 1,999,999.99	24,140	158,145,938	99.97418	41,431,838,733.52	1,716,314.78
2,000,000.00 — 2,499,999.99	12,137	158,158,075	99.98185	26,997,226,154.27	2,224,373.91
2,500,000.00 — 2,999,999.99	6,871	158,164,946	99.98619	18,747,446,313.27	2,728,488.77
3,000,000.00 — 3,499,999.99	4,799	158,169,745	99.98923	15,507,304,422.66	3,231,361.62
3,500,000.00 — 3,999,999.99	3,258	158,173,003	99.99129	12,166,741,762.34	3,734,420.43
4,000,000.00 — 4,499,999.99	2,353	158,175,356	99.99277	9,970,953,222.98	4,237,549.18
4,500,000.00 — 4,999,999.99	1,822	158,177,178	99.99393	8,633,941,395.34	4,738,716.46
5,000,000.00 — 9,999,999.99	6,468	158,183,646	99.99802	43,887,775,808.42	6,785,370.41
10,000,000.00 — 19,999,999.99	2,230	158,185,876	99.99942	30,065,006,121.19	13,482,065.53
20,000,000.00 — 49,999,999.99	776	158,186,652	99.99992	22,450,911,983.01	28,931,587.61
50,000,000.00 and over	134	158,186,786	100.00000	11,564,829,969.82	86,304,701.27