U.S. Median Annual Wage Falls To $26,364 As Pessimism Reaches 10-Year High [CORRECTION]

Americans' wages are falling, perhaps a reason why pessimism about their personal finances is now the lowest it's been in a decade.

The annual median wage fell in 2010 for the second year in a row to $26,364, a 1.2 percent drop from 2009, and the lowest level since 1999, according to David Cay Johnston at Reuters.

(A correction has been upended to this post).

Meanwhile, U.S. households are growing increasingly concerned about their finances with more than 20 percent of adult Americans rating their financial situation as "poor," a Gallup poll finds. That's a larger share than the 16 to 19 percent of Americans who viewed their finances as poor during and after the recession. It's also the highest percentage since 2001, the first year of the survey, according to Gallup.

In some ways, the financial crisis has taken more of a toll on the employed during the recovery. Indeed, Americans' incomes have fallen more during the recovery than they did during the recession. Incomes dropped 6.7 percent during the recovery between June 2009 and June 2011, compared to a 3.2 percent drop during the recession from December 2007 to June 2009, a study from former Census Bureau officials found.

And it will take some time to get incomes back to where they were before the recession. The U.S. median income has declined 7 percent in the last 10 years and while economists expect incomes to rise over the next decade, it likely won't be enough to return to pre-recession income levels, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Not everyone is suffering, however. The number of workers making $1 million or more actually rose to nearly 94,000 last year from 78,000 in 2009, according to Reuters.

Still, most employed workers don't expect much in the near future. Nine out of 10 American workers say they don't expect to get a salary increase in the next year that will be enough to compensate for rising food and fuel prices, a June American Pulse survey found. Meanwhile, Gallup's Basic Necessities Index -- a measure of Americans' access to food, shelter and health care -- fell earlier this month to lows on par with recession levels.

Corporations may finally be feeling the pain of a sluggish recovery too, MSNBC reports. As CEOs continue to report their company earnings for the last quarter, their outlooks for the future will likely include belt-tightening measures, according to MSNBC.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post misstated that the U.S. median income fell to $26,364. The U.S. annual median wage fell to $26,364.

Comments

[AnthropologistAmongApes]

01:04 PM on 11/15/2011

This is exactly as planned by ALEC and its right wing corporate agenda. The right has understood that the only way to salvage greed-based capitalism is to make the entire planet just one cheap labor pool. That cannot be done as long as living wages are precedented; especially by unions. "Corporate belt tightening" is code for lowering labor costs by lowering wages.

[advchaser]

02:16 PM on 11/01/2011

We need to start emphasizing that hard work and education are rewarded. That a high school diploma isn't what it used to be and that by NOT graduating you are increasing the likelihood of laboring for minimum wage of less for the rest of your life. We could call it the reality curve.

[Ellamenta]

11:18 PM on 11/13/2011

But hard work and education are frequently NOT rewarded in today's economy--ask many recent college graduates. Ask many engineers with 20 or more years of experience, whose jobs have been off-shored, or simply handed to someone with less experience and education who will command less salary.

[advchaser]

06:10 AM on 11/14/2011

You're absolutely right, a lot of people with degrees in high demand majors like Art History and people who never had the right work ethic are having problems.

That said, the unemployment rate for college educated Americans is only 4.5 percent. Seems pretty worthwhile to me.

[advchaser]

06:42 AM on 11/14/2011

Almost every professional I know that was laid off or fired or asked to take early retirement deserved it. Either they became blase or didn't show initiative or the defrauded their employer.

And I know lots of people who work in areas other then their field of study and they are quite happy.

We do what we have to do in order to do what we want to do. James Farmer Jr., The Great Debaters

[builderman55]

10:33 AM on 10/24/2011

We need a new chart that shows the relationship between how much money the rich need before they start to invest in productivity. We could call it "The Laugher Curve."

[builderman55]

11:28 AM on 10/22/2011

Beyond all the righteous (and justified) indignation about the growing income disparity, as a country we need to simply understand that the situation is inherently destabilizing.. The perception that the country works better for some people than others, and that the game is rigged to help a small group over others is like a small leak in a wall that allows water to slowly penetrate and undermine the structure. It is quite simply unarguable that for the last 30 years the country has been committed to moving wealth up to the top 1% while the middle class has been slipping. And, what we have been promised would happen as a result simply has not happened. It has not created a stable, investment oriented economy. It has fueled conspicuous consumption here and has stuffed tax havens overseas. The deregulation that was supposed to free up innovation has instead, triggered a breakdown in market discipline and the development of black box, unregulated derivatives that virtually destroyed the mortgage market and also drained off the best economic minds from Universities to serve as "Quants," individuals who develop more and more arcane financial products the effects of which we are now living through. Look across the border to Canada, where they resisted those trends, which now has a stable, healthy economy. It is time for America to grow up, and accept that we don't live in the Wild West anymore...

[shershomenow]

09:04 PM on 10/25/2011

Well said. f/f/b

[StopTeaGOP]

07:47 AM on 10/22/2011

"U.S. Median Incomes Fall As Number Of Millionaires Grow" - Just as the Republicans

[StopTeaGOP]

08:01 AM on 10/22/2011

The poor getting poorer

[mmcgrew]

06:36 AM on 10/22/2011

NOW, Now,...............think of the jobs being created for trainers of Polo poneys......

The rich DO create jobs...lets be fair............

[frank1946]

01:08 AM on 10/22/2011

BIG GOVERNMENT has not created any Rich Nation States yet !

China limits Government, DEBT and Population Growth !

China is kicking Butt in the World Economy.

[StopTeaGOP]

07:55 AM on 10/22/2011

Quit using nonsensical talking point. If you love chinese communism

[StopTeaGOP]

07:56 AM on 10/22/2011

...why don't you buy a one-way ticket to Shangai.

[Davi Car]

11:47 PM on 12/11/2011

You wish to defend China's barbaric and evil one-child policy? Really?!?

Swine.

[Bub]

03:11 PM on 10/21/2011

This is the long term consequence of Reagan nomics.

Productivity is up, but median wages are down. How can this be?

What you make is a function of your bargaining power.

America is based upon one governing principle: free contract.

In such a society everything is based upon bargaining power. Everything that goes on around us in this society is all about individuals or groups trying to enhance their bargaining power, be it advertising on tv, personal grooming, or activities that take place in Washington and Wall Street. The founders gave us democracy to level the playing ground upon which bargaining takes place, but they can't do anything to suspend people's naivety/stupidity.

The rich know this, of course, and they have consistently contrived to take away middle and working class bargaining power - which is why wages are down even though productivity is up.

The people have been duped by false culture wars and false ideology. Trickledown theory, the idea that the best way for you to get more money is to give other people more money, is, to be kind, naive.

[VonMarco]

03:35 PM on 10/21/2011

This site supports your comment...

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-protesters-are-so-angry-about-2011-10?op=1

The narrow mindedness of working and middle class republicans reject facts and reality and accept FOX as their only source of information.

[morbius]

10:18 AM on 10/22/2011

And the justification working and middle class republicans is equally idiotic: If you are not wealthy, you must be lazy.... or.... God rewards the good with money, so if you don't have any, you must be bad. And all this music to the republican montra (come on, sing it with me!!!!): if you just give us tax breaks and end regulation, YOU TOO CAN BE WEALTHY!!!!

[zelda777]

11:41 PM on 10/21/2011

All of which is a very good reason to keep strong unions.

[tomeb]

02:54 PM on 10/21/2011

The darkest hour is before sunrise..

[iconico62]

02:51 PM on 10/21/2011

This "most favored" status we bestowed on countries like China should be revoked immediately. What good has it done for us? Is congress really that stupid they can't see?

[looneydoone]

11:54 AM on 10/22/2011

Not stupid, Congress is corrupted
www.ALECexposed.org

[Nic the wonder puppy]

10:45 AM on 10/21/2011

Its like a dog with flees, it will continue to happen.

[lambdin1]

10:45 AM on 10/21/2011

Do we in the middle class really need to be told this?!?

[reader1]

09:14 AM on 10/22/2011

Is there still a middle class in this country?

[mfitz11]

09:42 AM on 10/21/2011

So let's get this straight.
The average American's income fell to $26K, while the execs at big wall street banks who were bailed out and able to stay afloat due to tax payer money, are probably going to be taking home hundred million dollar bonuses this year.

And people wonder why thousands have gathered in the streets to protest what has been going on in this country.

[bobbythompson3333]

07:10 AM on 10/21/2011

Our President is so good about instilling a sense of confidence. Ha - You would think the million dollar bus tour would do that huh?

[pjean]

10:31 AM on 10/21/2011

gosh why does huff post allow people who cannot process information and think for themselves the opportunity to post nonesense. I guess you overlook the following from the article or you simply couldn't read beyond the first two paragraphs or maybe rush failed to read it to you.

" The U.S. median income has declined 7 percent in the last 10 years and while economists expect incomes to rise over the next decade, it likely won't be enough...... "

[Downrivers]

01:58 PM on 10/21/2011

Republicans were sent to Congress in 2010 for an explicit reason...to create jobs. Instead we ave seen nothing but more obstructionism.

Congress has a 13% approval rating.

Most Americans know that Republicans could care less about the Economy or the middle class...as long as they can regain power,

[StopTeaGOP]

08:07 AM on 10/22/2011

Excellent summary of the Teapublicans' agenda which changed after their 2010 midterm election. I voters will savvy enough to make a note for the upcoming election cycle.

[MamacitaOfLove]

02:17 AM on 10/21/2011

OCCUPY.