The most striking number in today’s U.S. Census Bureau report on poverty (PDF) isn’t even about poverty. It’s about middle-class, working America. According to the Census Bureau, American men who work full-time, year-round earned less in real terms in 2012 than they did in 1973.
So much for a rising tide lifting all boats. Gross domestic product has nearly tripled since 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon was still flashing his V sign and Pink Floyd released its Dark Side of the Moon album, but the gains have been highly concentrated among the already wealthy.
Last year, according to today’s Census Bureau report, men who worked full-time, year-round had median earnings of $49,398. That’s a decline of 4 percent from 1973, adjusted for inflation. Women saw gains of 29 percent over the period, but nothing lately. They earned less last year than they did in 2001.
“We’ve had 40 years of stagnation,” says Sheldon Danziger, the new president of the Russell Sage Foundation, which funds research on improving living conditions in the U.S.
“Things just don’t trickle down,” Danziger says. “If the full-time, full-year male workers aren’t benefiting from economic growth, why should we expect the poor to be?”
The only period in the last few decades in which the poverty rate declined substantially was the late 1990s, when unemployment got below 5 percent. Employers became willing to hire applicants whom they otherwise would have ignored. Wage growth remained constrained and productivity high, indicating that the people who were ushered into the labor market by the strong economy pulled their weight.
Today’s sluggish economy, with unemployment at 7.3 percent in August, isn’t doing anything to relieve pressure on the middle class, much less the poor. According to the Census Bureau, the official poverty rate in 2012 was 15 percent. That’s not statistically different from the 2011 rate, but it’s up from 12.5 percent in 2007.
The national average poverty line in 2012 was an income of $23,492 for a family of four. That’s misleadingly low, however, because it excludes the value of food stamps and housing assistance.
For more, check the Census Bureau’s report here (PDF).