Key Takeaways
- Census Bureau data showed that incomes rose across all levels and groups in 2023, with the median income rising for the first time since 2019 to reach $80,610.
- Income increased for the bottom 10% of earners, helping lower the poverty rate.
- Post-pandemic fiscal relief helped the labor market quickly recover after the COVID-19 slowdown, according to economists.
Median income fully recovered from the pandemic last year, the first statistically significant increase since 2019, the Census Bureau found.
According to data released this week, real median household income rose by 4% in 2023 to reach $80,610. The data underscores the hot labor market in 2023, when 2.7 million jobs were created and strong monthly jobs reports helped keep the U.S. economy from sliding into a recession that many economists forecast.
“These robust income gains reflect the labor market that produced strong employment and wage gains,” wrote the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Incomes Rose Across Earnings Levels, Groups
Household income rose evenly throughout different earnings brackets and groups, while income inequality measurements showed some improvements.
The data did show that the bottom 10% of workers increased their wages by 6.7%, better than the 4.6% earnings growth for the top 10%. The poverty rate also dropped slightly.
Economists Elise Gould and Josh Bivens at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, wrote that the improving income data showed that post-pandemic fiscal relief helped the labor market quickly recover after the COVID-19 slowdown.
“Today’s data highlight the extraordinary strength of the recovery from the economic crises caused by the pandemic,” they wrote in a blog post.