The Declining Economic Viability of the Single-Income Household: A Note on the Fortunes of the Middle Class

Abstract

This working paper utilizes income data to evaluate the claim that in the United States a middle class existence has come to require two full-time incomes where formerly it had commonly required only one. To that end it makes an argument for the usefulness of measuring income in relation to per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a way of judging the standard of living such an income buys, then measures median male income, the minimum wage and (across fifths of the income distribution), mean household income over the last seven decades against per capita GDP to establish the tendency. On the basis of the observable trend the analysis concludes that while more commonly cited "real" incomes based on the adjustment of current dollar figures for inflation offer an image of stagnation, the measurement of income against per capita GDP (against which it has fallen sharply since the 1960s) has been strongly suggestive of a decline in incomes for the great majority of the public relative to the cost of living.

Keywords: United States-economic history, United States-living standards, median income, median male income, mean income, household income, middle class, the distribution of income, neoliberalism