Incomes rise for bottom 99 pct.; US inequality still worsens
Incomes for the bottom 99 percent of American families rose 3.3 percent last year to $47,213, the biggest annual gain in the past 15 years, according to data compiled by economist Emmanuel Saez and released Monday by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.
"For the bottom 99 percent of income earners, this marks the first year of real recovery from the income losses sparked by the Great Recession," Saez, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley, said in a summary of his findings.
Strong job gains and a falling unemployment can help broadly raise incomes as businesses are forced to offer higher pay to attract workers.
Saez's figures are compiled from IRS tax data, using pre-tax income that excludes government transfer payments, such as Social Security retirement income.
Some critics of their work have pointed out that excluding government benefits exaggerates income disparities.
[...] other sources, such as the Congressional Budget Office, have included the impact of taxes and benefits and found wide, if less-pronounced, wealth gaps.