Americans' incomes hit a record high in 2025. Now for the bad news.
The typical U.S. household's annual earnings have risen only 2.5% since 2019, new data from the Census Bureau shows.
In 2025, American households earned a record median income of $87,460, according to census data, a slight improvement over the previous peak of $85,320 in 2019. However, adjusting for inflation, the typical household's income has barely grown over the past six years of pandemic disruption and rising consumer prices. While incomes continued to rise overall, the gain was modest at just 2.5% compared to 2019.
Notably, women's wages increased by 3.2% last year, but men's incomes declined slightly. This narrowing of the gender wage gap still leaves women earning 84 cents for every dollar earned by men, an improvement from 2024 when it was 81 cents. The data may also reflect tax changes from the "One Big Beautiful Bill" act signed by President Trump in July 2025, which provided significant tax cuts to high-income households and corporations.
The top 10% of earners saw their income grow by 1.7% to $261,300, while the poorest 10% reported a slight decline to just over $20,000. This disparity highlights that while the median income for top earners is increasing, income for the lowest earners remains stagnant. Some experts cautioned that the positive impact from the tax cuts and changes to social safety net programs may not be fully realized until the Census releases 2026 income and poverty rates in 2027.
Written by urgent.news from CBS News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
