The nation's poverty rate fell to 14.5% in 2013, down from
15% a year earlier, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday. This is the first
statistically significant drop in poverty since 2006, when it was 12.3%. A lot
of the decrease is coming from people finding full-time work -- and thus
earning more money. But the number of people in poverty remains stuck at 45.3
million. As America's population expands, the job growth hasn't kept pace.
Middle class Americans have even less to celebrate.
Median household income remained essentially flat in 2013 at $51,939. What's
worse, median income remains only a touch above where it was in 1995. So the
middle class has retained none of the gains from the economic booms of the late
1990s and mid 2000s. And they have yet climb out of the hole of the Great
Recession. Median income remains 8% lower than in 2007.
Not everyone's income, however, is stuck in neutral. The richest
Americans -- those in the top 5% -- have seen their incomes shoot up 14%
since 1995.
Stagnating wages are the main cause for this widening gap.
Paychecks have remained the same or have shrunk for the vast majority of Americans
since 1979, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank.
But the wealthy rely more on investment income, which has skyrocketed with the
rising stock market.
There were some bright spots in the Census report. The
median income for young people -- age 15 to 24 -- jumped over 10%, the first
increase since 2006. And senior citizens saw their median income rise about 4%,
the first increase since 2009. Hispanics saw their median income tick up 3.5%,
but they were the only group to see a significant change.
The poverty rate has been edging downward since it
peaked at 15.1% in 2010. More people near the bottom of the income ladder are
working, said Charles Nelson, assistant division chief for economic
characteristics at the Census Bureau. Some 2.8 million more people were working
full-time in 2013 compared to a year earlier.
Two groups saw significant decreases in their poverty rates.
The number of children in poverty fell to 14.7 million, down from 16.1 million
the first decline since 2000. That's because many of their parents have now
found full-time work. And Hispanics saw their poverty rate fall to 23.5%, from
25.6%.
The poverty threshold for two adults and two children in the
U.S. is $23,624.
Click
here to access the full article on CNNMoney.