Americans got raise last year for first time since 2007
WASHINGTON — In a long-awaited sign that middle-class Americans are finally seeing real economic gains, U.S. households got a raise last year after seven years of stagnant incomes. Rising pay also lifted the poorest households, cutting poverty by the sharpest amount in nearly a half-century.
Higher minimum wages in many states and tougher competition among businesses to fill jobs pushed up pay, while low inflation made those paychecks stretch further. The figures show that the growing economy is finally benefiting a greater share of American households.
The median U.S. household’s income rose 5.2 per cent in 2015 to an inflation-adjusted level of $56,516, the Census Bureau said Tuesday . That is the largest one-year gain on data stretching back to 1967. It is up 7.3 per cent from 2012, when incomes fell to a 17-year low.
Still, median incomes remain 1.6 below the $57,423 reached in 2007. The median is the point where half of households fall below and half are above.