That seems low. Especially when you consider how many "households" have duel incomes.
Originally Posted by Jackie S
It probably seems that way because the number widely reported is the median, not the mean (which is much higher).
Due to rapidly increasing income disparity over the last four decades, the U.S. mean household income has grown much faster than the median, although media outlets prefer to report the latter.
Most of the increasing skewness has occurred at the very high end of the distribution, while tens of millions of Americans with limited skills and poor levels of education have fallen badly behind. In the modern era of free-trade globalization, it's very difficult for many of them to compete.