Probably should have said middle income.. but I did find this on the subject from a forthcoming report.
"The full text will be released
January 1 by Cornell University Press.
With economic signs again pointing toward slump, US family income is
only now returning to the level of 1989, the high point before the last
recession. Income remains depressed despite a substantial increase in the
typical workweek, with the average family putting in six more weeks of
work per year in 1996 compared with 1989.
Projections for 1997 indicate that the total wealth controlled by the top 1
percent of the population has increased to 39.1 percent, up from 37.4
percent in 1989. The pay of corporate CEO's, including salaries and
bonuses, doubled between 1989 and 1997.
The report documents the following facts:
In 1997 the inflation-adjusted earnings of the median US worker
were 3.1 percent below the 1989 level. During that period real
wages for the bottom 60 percent of workers remained the same or
fell. The only exception was the lowest paid group of workers, who
enjoyed a 1.4 percent increase.
The typical family, husband and wife, worked 247 more hours (over
six weeks) per year than in 1989.
Workers employed at "long-term jobs," those lasting 10 years or
more, decreased from 41 percent in 1979 to 35.4 percent in 1996,
the greatest portion of the decline since the late 1980s.
The typical middle-income family had 3 percent less wealth in 1997
than in 1989. The benefits of the stock market rise have gone almost
exclusively to the upper 10 percent, who have enjoyed 85.8 percent
of the increase.
One of the most significant findings of the report is the stagnation in pay for
so-called "knowledge" workers, those with college degrees or specialized
training. The failure of more educated sections of the work force to reap
any significant pay gains refutes the claim of the Clinton administration that
education is the road to prosperity for the working class. Newly hired
engineers and scientists are earning 11 percent and 8 percent less
respectively than in 1989. Entry level wages for college graduates, male
and female, were 7 percent less in 1997 than in 1989. Overall wages for
the college educated rose just 1.2 percent during the same period, while
job insecurity increased.
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