Earnings of the top 1.0 percent rebound strongly in the recovery

There has been some discussion over the last year or so that the growth of income inequality--especially the trends favoring the top 1.0 percent--had been reversed in the recent downturn and, therefore, policymakers need not focus on the overall increase in income inequality since the late 1970s. Ne...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Policy File 2013
Main Authors: Mishel, Lawrence, Finio, Nicholas
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Economic policy
Economic Policy Institute
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Summary:There has been some discussion over the last year or so that the growth of income inequality--especially the trends favoring the top 1.0 percent--had been reversed in the recent downturn and, therefore, policymakers need not focus on the overall increase in income inequality since the late 1970s. Newly available data on the labor earnings of the very highest earners are the first indicators available for 2011 enabling a determination as to whether this is indeed the case. These data allow an assessment of how wages grew for the various wage segments of the workforce, including the top 1.0 percent, during the recent downturn and the recovery through 2011. The data also allow us to update our analysis in The State of Working America, 12th Edition (Mishel et al. 2012) of wage growth since 1947--and especially since 1979, when wage inequality began to rise. The data cover annual earnings because they are drawn from the wage records in the Social Security system. Since these data are for annual wages and salaries, the trends identified reflect both changes in hourly wages and changes in annual hours worked (based on changes in weekly hours and weeks worked per year).