September 21, 2025
Lots of people keep saying – they’re making more money than ever before and yet they’re living paycheck to paycheck. They’re struggling. And now we have the numbers to prove exactly why.
Just a few weeks ago the census bureau came out with this report that found household income levels in 2024 were about the same as they were in 2019 but inflation in 2024 was so high – it made it impossible for lots of people to keep up – except of course the richest.
Ok – so every year the Census Bureau puts out this report tracking income, poverty and health insurance coverage for Americans. This new report found that in 2024 real median household income – pre-tax – and adjusted for inflation was $83,730. That is not statistically any different than it was in 2023 and in fact – it’s about the same as it was in 2019…before the pandemic. Among full time year round workers median incomes increased 3.7% for men but did not change significantly for women. In fact, the female to male earning ratio which is a fancy way of saying the wage gap between men and women who are working full time, year round — fell for women from 82.7% in 2023 to 80.9% in 2024. That translates to the median earnings for men in 2024 were $71,090 and for women it was $57,520. This is the second year the earning ratio for women has dropped.
Now – the report also breaks the household income down by race. It found all races saw incomes increasing between 2023 and 2024 except Black households which was the only category that saw a decrease in income between 2023 and 2024.
Of course — the highest income earners those households in the 90th percentile were the only category that saw major increases. Those households saw a 4.2% increase in their pre-tax incomes in 2024. But as I said the median household income and the lowest earning households saw no statistical change in income between 2023 and 2024.
So here’s why you’re probably feeling frustrated…according to the data – we saw household incomes in this country between 2014 and 2019 accelerate almost 21%. And over the last two years they’ve barely moved at all. Then – when you add the enormous spike in inflation we’ve seen over the last few years and now tariffs you now can see that it’s not you. It’s this economy. You are being financially squeezed by inflation, and price hikes on housing and groceries and child care and every day stuff.
Read the Census Bureau report here.
Report press kit here.
Charts here.
