New data show top 10 percent saw income gains five times as large as bottom 50 percent since 1979

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 1, 2019
Contact: Erica Handloff, 202-545-3354 or ehandloff@equitablegrowth.org (opens in a new tab)

WASHINGTON – The Washington Center for Equitable Growth released new data this morning revealing how the economy performed for Americans up and down the income ladder in 2015 and 2016. The new estimates (opens in a new tab) come from University of California, Berkeley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman and serve as one of the only tools policymakers have to measure who prospers when the economy grows.

Between 1979 and 2016, U.S. national income grew by nearly 60 percent. The new data show that over that time, workers in the bottom half of the income distribution saw their incomes rising by 22 percent, while those in the top 10 percent of earners had income gains nearly five times higher, rising by 100 percent.

2016 was an especially poor year for working class Americans in the bottom 20 percent of income, who saw their incomes decline by more than 3 percent.

Historically, policymakers have relied on Gross Domestic Product to measure the state of the U.S. economy. But in today’s era of increasing inequality, aggregate GDP statistics do not reflect the lived reality of most Americans, underscoring the need for these new data.

Following is a statement by Equitable Growth Executive Director Heather Boushey:

For more from Boushey on what the new data mean, click here (opens in a new tab).

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The Washington Center for Equitable Growth is a nonprofit research and grantmaking organization dedicated to advancing evidence-backed ideas and policies that promote strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth. For more information, see www.equitablegrowth.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook @equitablegrowth.