25 October 2011, CBO: Trends in Distribution of Household Income, 1979- 2007 (PDF)
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/10/25/income-growth-of-top-1-over-30-years-outpaced-rest-of-u-s/
October 25, 2011
Income Growth of Top 1% Over 30 Years Outpaced Rest of U.S.
By Corey Boles The wealthiest Americans saw their income nearly triple in the three decades to 2007, substantially more than all other segments of the population, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday. The nonpartisan agency said in a report that after-tax income on average grew by 62% during the 30-year period. But that growth wasn't even. The wealthiest 1% of Americans saw their incomes skyrocket by 275% during that stretch, while after-tax income for the one-fifth of households with the lowest income grew by just 18% from 1979 to 2007. For the richest Americans excluding the top 1%, household income grew by 65% during that period, while for the 60% in the middle of the income scale, the growth in after-tax income was just under 40%, the CBO said. The bulk of this widening gap was because income before taxes and government transfers grew for wealthier earners. The top 1% of the population accounted for 60% of all such income in 2007, up from 50% in 1979. But there was also a change in the impact of government transfers. The poorest 20% of the population received more than 50% of government transfers in 1979, but that had fallen to around 35% by 2007, the CBO said. This was largely because of the rise of spending focused on the programs benefiting the elderly such as Social Security and unemployment compensation that aren't limited to low-income households. The CBO report is the latest in a string of data highlighting the disparity in income growth between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of the nation.
