Census Bureau Data for 2005 Show Working Families Fell Behind
From Economic Policy Institute:
After falling each year since the economic recovery began in 2001, the income of the median household grew 1.1% (or $509) in inflation-adjusted terms last year.
Poverty rates, which have risen consistently over the recovery, were unchanged, according to today's release from the Census Bureau.
Income inequality also rose in 2005, as households at the top of the income scale saw greater income growth than everyone else.
Together, these facts suggest that working families fell behind in 2005.
It will take more analysis to evaluate the source of this growth, but given the negative earnings outcomes, it is likely their gains came from non-labor income, including Social Security (a benefit that is automatically indexed to inflation).
Between 2000 and 2005, the real median income of households headed by someone under 65 is down 5.4%, twice that of the overall household median, which is down 2.7% over the past five years.
Two important concepts for understanding today's Census data and the economic fortunes of Americans are the median household income and the poverty rate.
The median household is the one right in the middle of the income scale: half of all households have higher incomes and half have lower.
Yet the economy has expanded considerably over these years.
Over the longer term, today's Census Bureau data reveals that the share of all national income accruing to the richest fifth of households---50.4%---is the highest share on record going back to 1967.
There was a significant increase in the number of uninsured workers between 2004 and 2005.
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