If this data is accurate I feel simultaneously fortunate and terrified.
This succinctly says what I didn't have the words for. My income is good, but I'm constantly a little worried about how bad it could all go wrong. A loss of income for any reason (corporate restructuring, medical) would completely reverse that, and there isn't much I could do. I can't imagine how difficult it must be for someone on the lower end of income.
Dude, I clicked through to the sources, and either I don't know enough to interpret them correctly, or it is. I even checked the 2014 page too. I think things are actually maybe even...worse. So we need someone smarter to get in here and tell us if there is anything wrong with what I am seeing.
I will look later; I'm curious. These sorts of headlines are rarely if ever as true as they seem. There are many different kinds of income -- 37 million Americans did not make less than 10k last year, total. No way. EDIT: I see the inimitable wasoxygen was here before me.
I find it interesting that you make over: 170,000, you're more likely to make 200,000. 350,000, you're more likely to make 500,000 3.5 million, you're more likely to make 5 million It seems indicative of a social system where people demand a certain amount as a show of social value. The 200K, 500K, and 5M marks seem to be the social plateaus that tell people they have value. http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#(4) This is also interesting data in that the median compensation curve is pretty reasonable, capping out at 250K.