Median Household Income 2021: $70,784
[https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/graph-landing.php?g=11BYp&width=670&height=475)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N
https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R44705.pdf
https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distribution-of-household-income-in-the-us/
The household income level for the 25th percentile of households is about $34,500
Approximately 44% of all workers in the United States earn “low wages” (approximately two-thirds of median wages for full-time/full-year workers) - 53 million workers. The average of the national threshold across our five years of data, in 2016 real dollars, is $16.03, and the adjusted thresholds range from $12.54 in Beckley, W.Va. to $20.02 in San Jose.
In 2019, 6.3 million (of the 38 million poor) were considered working poor. The working poor are people who spent at least 27 weeks in the labor force (that is, working or looking for work) but whose incomes still fell below the official poverty level. This is typically 4-10 percent of the labor force. (https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/working-poor/2019/home.htm)
More info on the working poor here, and personal story here.
Why don’t jobs pay a living wage?
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/realism-about-reskilling/
Inflation-Adjusted Median Household Income by Race and Ethnicity
https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/visualizations/2021/demo/p60-273/figure2.pdf
[https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-latest-poverty-income-and-food-insecurity-data-reveal-continuing-racial-disparities/](https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/N5ONI/7/)
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-latest-poverty-income-and-food-insecurity-data-reveal-continuing-racial-disparities/
Over a lifetime, the average white man will earn $2.7 million dollars, while a Black man earns $1.8 million, a Black woman $1.3 million, a Latino man $2.0 million, and a Latina woman $1.1 million. In fact, research has shown that every $1 in income translates to $5.19 in wealth for white people, but just 69 cents for Black people.
Black workers make up 17 percent of low-wage workers and Latinx workers make up 27 percent, despite 14 and 18 percent respectively in the overall workforce. As a result, the median wage for both groups sits at roughly $22, about $6 less than white workers.
https://www.workrisenetwork.org/working-knowledge/who-low-wage-workforce