New Figures Detail Depth Of Unemployment Misery, Lower Earnings For All But Super Wealthy
One out of every 34 Americans who earned wages in 2008 earned absolutely nothing — not one cent — in 2009.
The stunning figure was released earlier this month by the Social Security Administration, but apparently went unreported until it appeared today on Tax.com in a column by Pulitzer Prize-winning tax reporter David Cay Johnston.
It's not just every 34th earner whose financial situation has been upended by the financial crisis. Average wages, median wages, and total wages have all declined — except at the very top, where they leaped dramatically, increasing five-fold.
