Middle Class Income Rising, Back To Where It Was In 2000

MORE GREAT ECONOMIC NEWS …

As reported at CBS – Boston, Middle class income levels are back to where they were during 2000. The Pew Research Center report, which used the most recent data available; however wait until they use the 2017 and 2018 economic data that will show the levels have blown above the reported 2016 ones.

No wonder the middle class is feeling squeezed. Its income is only returning to where it was in 2000.

The typical family of three had an income of just under $78,450 in 2016, according to a Pew Research Center report, which used the most recent data available. In 2000, it was just under $78,100.

Whatever advances the middle class made in the early 2000s were snuffed out by the Great Recession, said Rakesh Kochhar, a senior researcher at Pew. Its median income had dropped to $74,000 by 2010, and it took several years to return because of the historically slow economic recovery just after the downturn.

Only upper income families have seen some uptick. Their income rose to nearly $187,900 in 2016, compared to $183,700 in 2000.

The Census Bureau will report median household income for 2017 for the nation overall on Wednesday. It rose to just over $59,000 in 2016, up 3.2% from a year earlier.