For the first time since the great depression (and possibly even then), US wage earners suffered through A Decade With No Income Gains.



The typical American household made less money last year than the typical household made a full decade ago.



To me, that’s the big news from the Census Bureau’s annual report on income, poverty and health insurance, which was released this morning. Median household fell to $50,303 last year, from $52,163 in 2007. In 1998, median income was $51,295. All these numbers are adjusted for inflation.



In the four decades that the Census Bureau has been tracking household income, there has never before been a full decade in which median income failed to rise. (The previous record was seven years, ending in 1985.) Other Census data [Historical Income Tables] suggest that it also never happened between the late 1940s and the late 1960s. So it doesn’t seem to have happened since at least the 1930s.



Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage

click on any chart to see a sharper image

The streak probably won’t end in 2009, either. Unemployment has been rising all year, which is a strong sign income will fall.