U.S. household incomes rise again

Earning power about same as it was in 2007 before the Great Recession

WASHINGTON — The income of a median U.S. household rose for a third straight year in 2017 as solid economic growth helped put more people into full-time jobs. But income inequality also worsened as the wealthiest Americans enjoyed even larger pay increases.

Incomes for a typical U.S. household, adjusted for inflation, rose 1.8 percent, from $60,309 in 2016 to $61,372. The proportion of Americans living in poverty also dropped for the third straight year, to 12.3 percent from 12.7 percent.

The figures suggest that the nation’s low unemployment rate, 3.9 percent, is forcing businesses to convert more part-time workers to full-time status. And with the ranks of the unemployed dwindling, companies are hiring more people who previously weren’t looking for work. During 2017, the unemployment rate averaged 4.4 percent, the lowest level in 17 years.

The number of people with jobs rose by 1.7 million in 2017, the census report said. And the number of workers with fulltime permanent jobs increased

INCOMES A census report found that the wage gap between men and women stayed the same, with women working full time earning 80.5 cents for every dollar earned by a male full-time worker.

by 2.4 million.

“We’re continuing to see that shift from part-time, part-year work to year-round, full-time work,” Trudi Renwick, an assistant division chief at the Census Bureau, said.

At the same time, the data underscores the damage the Great Recession did to the majority of American families. U.S. households are still earning essentially the same that they did in 2007 just before the Great Recession. And their inflation-adjusted median income remains slightly below the record in 1999 of $62,000, Census said.

“The income of a typical household

today is about where it was 18 years ago,” said Robert Greenstein, president of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

The median is the point at which half the households are below and half are above. It can be a more telling measure than the average, which is distorted by high incomes among the wealthiest households.

Last year’s median income increase was slower than gains of 5.1 percent in 2015 and 3.1 percent in 2016.

Some of that slowdown reflected higher inflation, which was just 0.1 percent in 2015 and 1.3 percent the following year. It rose to 2.2 percent in 2017.

Higher prices for gas, housing and other goods and services are

eroding income gains more this year. Consumer prices increased 2.9 percent in July from a year earlier, matching June’s pace as the fastest in six years.

Wealthier Americans pulled further ahead last year. Even steady growth over the previous eight years hasn’t been enough to countertrends to greater economic inequality. Income growth was strongest for the richest 5 percent of households, rising 3 percent to $237,034. For the poorest one-fifth of the population, incomes rose just 0.5 percent.

The wealthiest 5 percent received 3.9 times the income earned by the median U.S. household. That’s the highest on records dating to 1967. In 2007, before the Great Recession, that multiple was 3.5.