134 Americans Were Paid $50 Million or More in 2014

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration the median wage in 2014 was $28,851.21. Here’s a list of the median wage for 10 years beginning in 2004:

• 2013: $28,031
• 2012: $27,519
• 2011: $26,965
• 2010: $26,364
• 2009: $26,261
• 2008: $26,514
• 2007: $25,737
• 2006: $24,892
• 2005: $23,962
• 2004: $23,356

Since 2004, the median wage has grown by 23% at a compound annual growth rate of less than 2%. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator, the median wage in 2004 was worth $29,271 in 2014 inflation-adjusted dollars. On that basis, the median wage is now lower than it was 11 years ago.

But things are tough all over. In 2007 a total of 151 people earned $50 million a year or more, before the number dropped down to just 81 in 2010. At 134 in 2014, the number of people at the tip-top of the earnings scale is roughly on a par with the total in 2006.

The good news, such as it is for most of us, is that more Americans were working in 2014 than in 2013 and that the jobs tend to pay better. Here’s the year-over-year breakdown, according to a report at Al Jazeera America:

The number of jobs paying $30,000 to $50,000 increased 1.7 percent. Jobs paying $50,000 to $75,000 rose by 3.7 percent. Jobs paying $250,000 to $1 million increased 9.5 percent. Those paying $1 million to $50 million increased 15.4 percent. And the number of jobs above that stratospheric level grew by 22 percent, from 110 to 134 lucky duckies. But average gross pay for them fell by a fourth, to $86.3 million. Pay at these levels is heavily influenced by cashouts to retiring executives who typically collect both deferred pay and gold — nay, platinum — handshakes.

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Nearly 31% of American workers were paid less than $15,000 in 2014 and nearly half (48.6%) were paid less than $30,000. The number of workers making less than $15,000 fell by more than 600,000 workers year over year. Did they move up? The total number of workers in the $15,000 to $30,000 category only increased by about 200,000 year over year, and it is highly unlikely that large numbers of those earning the lowest wages jumped two wage levels to earn more than $30,000 a year.

If it’s lonely for the 134 at the top earning at least $50 million, what are the 22.6 million workers at the bottom who average less than $5,000 feeling?