How Much Americans Make In Wages, Visualized

While it's no secret that economic disparity is widening in the US, the fact that a high percentage of workers made less than $5,000 last year is both startling and bleak.

Using wage statistics in 2017 from the Social Security Administration (SSA), personal finance site HowMuch put together a graph that shows how net compensation was distributed among wage earners in the US last year:

According to HowMuch's graph, 13% of wage-earners earned less than $5,000 and 48% of workers made less than or as much as $31,361.49 — the median wage — last year. To put that figure into perspective, we should note that the federal poverty level for a household of one is $12,140 and $25,100 for a family of four.

It's worth bearing in mind that the data used by HowMuch includes wages reported by part-time workers, such as students. Although that will inevitably lower figures a bit, it's still disheartening to see that a little over a fifth of wage earners in the US reported net compensation of less than or as much as $10 thousand last year. Compare that with the 1.4% of people who earned over $250,000 last year, and voila, you've got yourself a perfect picture of income inequality.

[Read more at HowMuch]