U.S. household income FELL in 2022 for the third straight year due to inflation and rising cost of living

09/13/2023 / By Arsenio Toledo

The average household income of Americans fell in 2022 for the third straight year as the cost of living rose and their living standards continued to be eroded by unrelenting inflation.

This is according to data from the Census Bureau released on Tuesday, Sept. 12, which saw that U.S. real median household income in 2022 fell by 2.3 percent to $74,580, down from $76,330 in 2021. This also represents a 4.7 percent drop since the U.S. inflation-adjusted median household income peaked in 2019. (Related: Food shortages and inflation continue as “Bidenomics” SPECTACULARLY FAILS.)

By region, median household incomes in 2022 dropped between three to five percent in the American West, Northeast and Midwest, while median household incomes in the South remained unchanged.

By race, White households saw median income decline by 3.6 percent from the prior year to $81,100. Incomes in Black, Asian and Hispanic households were relatively unchanged. Asian households still had the highest median incomes, at $108,700, compared with $62,800 for Hispanic households and $52,900 for Black households.

The Census Bureau further noted that the official U.S. national poverty rate in 2022 was at 11.5 percent, or 37.9 people who live in poverty. This level is relatively unchanged compared to 2021. The weighted average poverty threshold for a family of four last year was $29,678.

However, the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) rate, which accounts for the participation of individuals in government welfare programs, saw the number of Americans receiving government aid double from 5.2 percent in 2021 to 12.4 percent in 2022.

“This increase [in SPM] can be attributed to key changes in federal tax policy, including the expiration of temporary expansions to the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit as well as the end of pandemic-era stimulus payments,” wrote the Census Bureau.

As inflation rises, American earnings plummet

At the same time, between 2021 to 2022, the Census Bureau noted that inflation rose by 7.8 percent, the largest annual increase in the cost-of-living adjustment since 1981.

Inflation in 2022 reached a peak of 9.1 percent in June. While it has cooled since last year, it remains far above the Federal Reserve’s target inflation rate of two percent. In July, inflation fell to its lowest in years at 3.2 percent.

Average nominal wage growth grew by 6.4 percent last year, and while it is higher than expected it still did not keep up with inflation for a majority of U.S. workers.

Earnings – mostly wages and salaries – in 2022 for all workers fell by 2.2 percent to about $48,000 compared to the previous year, adjusted for inflation. Among full-time workers who worked year-round, median earnings dropped by 1.3 percent to about $60,100.

The total number of workers in the U.S. rose by 1.7 percent or about 2.8 million, while the number of full-time, year-round workers jumped 3.4 percent or four million to 121.4 million, or about a third of the U.S. population.

“This suggests a continuing shift from working part-time or part-year to full-time, year-round work in 2022,” wrote the Census Bureau.

The 2022 female-to-male earnings ratio among full-time, year-round workers stayed essentially the same at around 84 percent.

Income inequality also improved slightly due to the decrease in income of wealthy households. The Gini index, a summary measure of how pretax incomes are distributed, declined by 1.2 percent in 2022 compared to the prior year. This indicates that the income gap between high- and low-income households was smaller.

The top fifth of American households – defined as those with incomes above $153,000 annually – collected 52.1 percent of overall household income in 2022, down from 52.7 percent last year. The top five percent alone – with incomes above nearly $300,000 annually – collected 23.5 percent of overall household income, remaining relatively unchanged from the prior year.

Households making less than $58,000 a year saw their share in overall household income rise slightly to a combined total of 11.2 percent.

Watch this 9/11 special edition episode of “Brighteon Broadcast News” as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, discusses the controlled economic demolition of the United States.

This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.