The Buck Stop: "The Sources of Bitterness"

Alex does the research:

Take a look at the data on median household incomes since 1967. Not the simple real median household data income data, which will obscure the underlying truth we are looking for, but the distribution across various income groups. For roughly half of the population of the United States, household incomes have been flat for 40 years. Let me repeat that: for half of the population, household incomes have not risen for four decades. Moving up the ladder, growth among those in the 50-75 percentile range has been anemic. Only at the top do you see any substantial growth. In other words, although things have been going swimmingly for the very wealthy for the past 40 years, for just about everyone else things have been tough.

Now there's one very important fact to keep in mind as you think about household incomes. It may seem self-evident, but it often is not. Household incomes measure the aggregate income for the entire household. Assuming that the same number of people are working per household over the period of time you are examining, that won't matter much. But during the time period we are examining, that just isn't the case. Because from 1967 to 1996, the proportion of wives working year-round in married couple households with children has increased from 17% to 39%. Or to put it another way, we have more people working more hours than ever before, all to create a society in which income levels have been largely flat.

Looking at the data since 1989, things actually get much worse. For those from the 75th percentile on down, income levels have been basically flat. Above that? Things have been just super, thank you very much.
And just to really help clarify things, since 2000, average wages have actually declined for most Americans. And that's not my interpretation. That data point comes from the US Census Department itself. And depending on which state you live in, they may have fallen as much as 12%. A twelve percent decline in just six years.