According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and as pointed out by the Hutchins Center for Fiscal and Monetary Policy, the typical American male earned less in twenty fourteen than they in nineteen seventy three. If one measures income in twenty fourteen dollars to adjust for inflation, the typical man with a full time job in nineteen seventy three earned about fifty three thousand three hundred dollars – again, this in twenty fourteen dollars.
Last year, the median male worker earned fifty thousand four hundred dollars, which means that male income is considerably lower than it was more than four decades ago once one adjusts for inflation. While women continue to earn less than men on average, female worker incomes rose more than 30 percent in real terms between nineteen seventy three and twenty fourteen.
The fact that male incomes have declined is astonishing given that the U.S. economy is far larger than it was four decades ago and that output per person has nearly doubled over that time. At least three factors appear to be at work. First, workers are receiving more of their compensation in the form of benefits today. Second, labor’s share of national income has been declining since two thousand. And the most important factor – rising wage inequality.
