People and Their Money - Where Does Your Household Income Fall?

If you would like to find your place in the economic pecking order of the U.S., the graphic above will let you do so. Data show the upper limits of the first four-fifths of all households in current dollars — so that you can check your old Income Tax forms and get a true reading. An example will illustrate the use of this graphic. If, in 1995, your household income was $14,400 or lower, you were in the lowest fifth of households in earning power. If, in that year, your income was higher than $65,124, you were in the top fifth of households. And if your household earned at least $113,000 in 1995, you were in the top 5% of households.

This chart illustrates the expansionary trends of the recent decade. The income curves rise more steeply the higher the income of the quintile of households.

Now that we have contemplated stratospheric income heights, we will turn our attention to the more sobering concerns of making a living wage, the minimum wage, the characteristics of low-wage workers, and to the role of educational attainment in income.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Survey. March reports. "Income Limits for Each Fifth and Top 5 Percent of Households (All Races): 1967 to 2000." 21 March 2002.