American Households Losing Ground

Lot"s of conflicting data reported in the liberal and conservative media regardi

The Census Bureau recently released its annual reports on income, poverty, and health insurance coverage. The reports illustrate how families have lost ground since the Covid pandemic, and why low unemployment, or even rising wages, will not lead to positive feelings about the economy unless and until inflation gets under control.

2019: $78,250

2020: $76,660 ($1,590 below 2019)

2021: $76,330 ($1,920 below 2019)

2022: $74,580 ($3,670 below 2019)

To put it another way, last year the median American household made $3,670 less in income than it did before the Covid pandemic.

The median income numbers are reported on a “real,” i.e., inflation-adjusted, basis. And the fact that inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, rose by 7.8 percent in 2022 — the largest increase since 1981, the census notes — explains why median household income fell by 2.3 percent last year.

Over the past four years, the differences become even more stark. All told, the median family has lost a total of $7,180 in real income since 2019. And that number doesn’t assume additional real income growth over the past four years, even though incomes generally grow under normal economic conditions. (The census notes that median incomes in 2019 were the highest recorded since 1967.)