From Half to 42.5%: Middle-Income America’s Declining Share of National Wealth

Income distribution figures reveal the long-term deterioration of the American middle class. The share of income earned by middle-income Americans, relative to the top 90th percentile, plummeted from just over half in 1980 to a mere 42.5% by 2023.
This middle-class squeeze is mirrored by the simultaneous crisis of extreme poverty, which has tripled to over four million Americans living on less than $3 a day. This is a political outcome, engineered by policies that systematically favor the wealthy.
Unlike China’s successful drive to eliminate extreme poverty, the US has chosen policies—such as tax cuts and reduced safety nets—that worsen the economic reality for its working-class citizens, leaving the poorest 10% with a negligible share of national income.