Coverage: U.S. household income rises for first time since 2007

The Census Bureau released data Tuesday that shows that the median U.S. household income rose 5.2 percent last year to more than $56,000, the first increase since 2007 and a sign of the continuing economic recovery.

Nick Timiraos and Janet Adamy of The Wall Street Journal have the news:

The increase was the largest annual gain recorded since the yearly survey of incomes began in 1967, though it didn’t fully close the gap left by last decade’s recessions. Median household incomes stood 1.6% shy of the 2007 level, before the last recession took its toll, and 2.4% below the all-time high reached in 1999.

The figures show how several years of robust employment growth, including 2.4 million people who gained full-time work last year, helped regain ground lost after an especially wrenching downturn, particularly for lower-income households. Longer hours, higher wages and lower inflation also have contributed to the improvement.

One question now is whether a sustained upturn is under way, or whether these gains are likely to peter out as the economy nears full employment, especially given a continuing slide in measured worker productivity.

“Wages and incomes took a big battering that we’re just now recouping, and you could say there’s no Super Bowl parade, but this is really superb growth,” said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning Washington think tank.

Mike Snider of USA Today reports why the increase may not be felt by some:

However, the income of the typical U.S. home still hasn’t managed to rise above where it was before the last recession. In 2007, median household income — the point at which half would make more, while the other half would make less — was $57,423, adjusted for inflation. And incomes peaked in 1999 at $57,909, also adjusted for inflation, the bureau says in its report, “Income and Poverty in the United States: 2015.”

“We lifted 3.5 million people out of poverty,” Obama said. “The uninsured rate is the lowest it has been since they kept records. The pay gap between men and women shrank to the lowest level ever.”

Even though the number of people living in poverty shrank to 43.1 million from 46.7 million, the largest drop since 1968, there’s room for improvement, said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas.

“Today’s report is another disappointing confirmation that too many Americans are still struggling to provide for their families and reach their full potential,” Brady said. “The federal government invests billions of dollars each year in programs to help low-income Americans — but more than 43 million people continue to live in poverty. It shouldn’t be this way in America.”

Lydia DePillis of the Houston Chronicle reports that minorities still lag behind:

Hispanics saw the biggest income bump in 2015, jumping up 6.1 percent to $45,148. African Americans continue to lag behind, with a median household income of $36,898. Overall, income growth in 2015 was the fastest on record, as the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors noted in a blog post accompanying the release. The poverty rate declined by 1.2 percent, to 13.5 percent, in the biggest one-year drop since 1968.

The gains were also particularly pronounced on the lower half of the income spectrum, the White House showed:

That doesn’t mean, however, that U.S. families are better off than they used to be. The median income is still 1.4 percent below what it was in 2007, and 2.4 below what it was in 1999, adjusted for inflation. Also, the percentage increase in 2015 was lower than the national average, at 2.9 percent. Numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics have shown especially sluggish growth in Texas, and Houston in particular.