Last year, according to the Social Security Administrationfigures, 50 percent of all American workers made less than $28,031, and 39
percent of all American workers made less than $20,000. If you worked a full-time job at $10 an hour
all year long with two weeks off, you would make $20,000. So the fact that 39 percent of all workers
made less than that amount is rather telling. The “average” yearly wage in
America last year was just $43,041. But
after accounting for inflation, that was actually worse than the year before, down
$79 from the previous year when measured in 2013 dollars and $508 below the
2007 level. Bear in mind that “average pay” is statistically skewed by the
millionaires and billionaires at the top end of the spectrum. Median pay means
that 50 percent of American workers made less than that number, and 50 percent
of American workers made more than that number, $28,031.
-39 percent of American workers made less than $20,000 last
year.
-52 percent of American workers made less than $30,000 last
year.
-63 percent of American workers made less than $40,000 last
year.
-72 percent of American workers made less than $50,000 last
year.
It has been estimated that it takes approximately $50,000 a
year to support a middle class lifestyle for a family of four, and so the fact
that 72 percent of all workers make less than that amount shows how difficult
it is for families that try to get by with just a single breadwinner. In many
homes in America today, both parents are working multiple jobs in a desperate
attempt to make ends meet. Pay-checks are stagnant while the cost of living continues
to rise. Flat or declining average pay is a major reason so many Americans feel
that the recession has never ended
The jobs that are being added to the economy pay a lot less
than the jobs lost in the last recession.
In fact, it has been estimated that the jobs that have been created
since the last recession pay an average of 23 percent less than the jobs that
were lost.
One group of Americans that did see their incomes actually
increase last year. Those making over 50 million dollars had their pay increase
by an average of $12.8 million in 2013.
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British Gas workers were outraged that Helge Lund was offered pay worth that of 2,113 minimum-wage workers to run the privatised firm. Lund — currently head of 67 per cent Norwegian state-owned Statoil — is being offered a £12m “golden hello” in shares and up to another £14m a year if he hits performance targets.
The current average executive pay and shares package within Britain’s top 100 stock market-listed companies stands at more than £2.43m a year, according to analysts Income Data Services — 92 times the average wage and 205 times the minimum wage. Directors’ pay has risen six times faster over the past 14 years than ordinary workers’.
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