For most U.S. workers, real wages have barely budged in decades -- Sluggish and uneven wage growth has been cited as a key factor behind widening income inequality in the United States. A recent Pew Research Center report, based on an analysis of household income data from the Census Bureau, found that in 2016 Americans in the top tenth of the income distribution earned 8.7 times as much as Americans in the bottom tenth ($109,578 versus $12,523). In 1970, when the analysis period began, the top tenth earned 6.9 times as much as the bottom tenth ($63,512 versus $9,212).

The disconnect between the job market and workers’ paychecks has fueled much of the recent activism in states and cities around raising minimum wages.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fa....ct-tank/2018/08/07/f

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Adjusted for inflation, today's average hourly wage has about as much purchasing power as it did in 1978. Most wage increases have gone to the highest earners.