Average Income Up $60,000 for Top 1 Percent, up $430 for Bottom 90%

A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that the average pre-tax income increased by $60,000 (5.8%) for the top 1 percent of American households in 2006. However, the average income for the bottom 90% of American households increased by only around $430 (1.4%). Below are some of the study’s findings, but you can read the full study by clicking here.

“2006 marked the fourth straight year in which income gains at the top outpaced those among the rest of the population. Since 2002, the average inflation-adjusted income of the top 1 percent of households has risen 42 percent, whereas the average inflation-adjusted income of the bottom 90 percent of households has risen about 4.7 percent.

As a result, the share of the nation’s income flowing to the top 1 percent has increased sharply, rising from 15.8 percent in 2002 to 20.0 percent in 2006. Not since 1928 – just before the Great Depression – has the top 1 percent held such a large share of the nation’s income. (See Figure 1.) In 2000, at the peak of the 1990s boom, the top 1 percent received 19.3 percent of total income in the nation.”