How to get rich in an age of inequality
The stock market has recovered more than it lost in the past year.
It has surged more than expected.
And it’s on a roll, as investors look for more profits amid the broader recovery in the economy.
But the market’s continued success can’t guarantee a bright future for the average worker, a point underscored by the latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows the median worker made just $2,000 in 2016, a drop from the $3,500 average wage of a decade ago.
In other words, the middle class has been hit by the recession more than anyone else, but the rich are still getting richer, despite the recession.
Why does it matter?
The Great Recession was a massive blow to the economy, but it wasn’t all bad.
The recovery was slow in coming.
Many companies and households struggled to find workers in the recovery, and some businesses struggled to hire.
Still, many workers were able to find jobs, as they saw wages rise in the recession, even as their compensation fell.
The recovery was also uneven, with some workers receiving better paychecks, while others didn’t.
Some of the recovery was due to a combination of a number of factors, including a rise in minimum wage laws, tax cuts, and job creation.
Yet it wasn.
The average wage for full-time workers rose from $21,000 to $23,000 between 2007 and 2016, but median wages dropped slightly from $29,400 to $30,900.
What do I need to know?
To get a better picture of how the economy is performing right now, the BLS tracks wages for workers ages 16 to 64.
This is the income group most likely to see job growth in the future, and its wages are expected to rise the most, due to the recovery.
In the past few years, the average annual wage for the workers ages 15 to 64 has risen slightly, but has been far from the heights it was a decade or more ago.
The rate of inflation for the 15- to 64-year-old group fell by 0.4 percent between 2013 and 2016.
That’s still far from enough to lift many Americans out of poverty, but a drop of that magnitude can mean a lot to many families.
The report also breaks down how much income the typical worker is earning now and how much he or she will make in the next 10 years.
The BLS says average annual wages for the typical workers ages 25 to 64 will increase from $18,000 now to $19,000 by 2020.
The typical wage for workers 65 and older will rise from $26,000 today to $27,000.
For the full-year 2016, the median hourly wage for this group was $22.32, up from $20.11 a decade earlier.
For the full year 2017, the wage will be $23.04, up more than $2 from a year earlier.
If I’m lucky, I’ll be earning more money in the coming years than I did a decade and a half ago.
But that’s not guaranteed.
A few factors are likely to keep a higher-earning worker in poverty.
Low-wage workers tend to have lower education and work more hours than higher-income workers.
As more workers have to pay higher wages in order to keep up with rising housing costs, their jobs could also be at risk.
And as the U,S.
and world economies recover from the recession and the recovery continues, more Americans will face higher unemployment, making it more difficult for low-income families to get by.
The American dream isn’t dead.
It’s still alive.
But it’s a much different one.