income

Examples of income in the following topics:

• Income

  • Census Bureau data on household incomes is used to inform welfare policy, as benefits are distributed based on expectations about what income is needed to access basic resources like food and healthcare.
  • Salary alone only measures the income from a person's occupation, while total personal income accounts for investments, inheritance, real estate gains, and other sources of wealth.
  • However, in a dual-income household the combined income of both earners, even if they hold relatively low status jobs, can put the household in the upper middle class income bracket.
  • In the United States, the most widely cited personal income statistics are the Bureau of Economic Analysis's personal income and the Census Bureau's per capita money income.
  • The Census Bureau also produces alternative estimates of income and poverty based on broadened definitions of income that include many components that are not included in money income.

• Income Distribution

  • The United States has a high level of income inequality, with a wide gap between the top and bottom brackets of earners.
  • Before 1937, a larger share of top earners' income came from capital (interest, dividends, income from rent, capital gains).
  • This graph illustrates the unequal distribution of income between groups with different levels of educational attainment.
  • Education is an indicator of class position, meaning that unequal distribution of income by education points to inequality between the classes.
  • Explain the development of income distribution in the US since the 1970's and what is meant by the "Great Divergence"

• Economic measures

  • A Gini coefficient of zero expresses perfect equality, where all values are the same (for example, where everyone has the same income).
  • A Gini coefficient of one (or 100%) expresses maximal inequality among values (for example where only one person has all the income).
  • However, a value greater than one may occur if some persons represent negative contribution to the total (e.g., have negative income or wealth).
  • The Gini coefficient was originally proposed as a measure of inequality of income or wealth.
  • The global income inequality Gini coefficient in 2005, for all human beings taken together, has been estimated to be between 0.61 and 0.68.

• Poverty

  • Poverty is the condition of not having access to material resources, income, or wealth.
  • Consequently, someone with an average income in Liberia has a substantially lower standard of living and much less access to resources than someone with an average income in the U.S.
  • Poverty describes the state of not having access to material resources, wealth, or income.
  • The poverty line is set at an income level that is three times the approximate cost of a subsistence level food budget.
  • "Near poverty" is the term for an income level that is just above the poverty line; it refers to incomes that are no more than 25% above the poverty line.

• The Lower Middle Class

  • They usually hold college degrees, but often have no graduate degree; they make comfortable incomes, but have low accumulated wealth; their work is largely self-directed, but is not high status.
  • Lower-middle class occupations usually provide comfortable salaries, but put individuals beneath the top third of incomes.
  • In terms of personal income distribution in 2005, that would mean gross annual personal incomes from about $32,500 to $60,000.
  • Since 42% of all households had two income earners, with the majority of those in the top 40% of gross income, household income figures would be significantly higher, ranging from roughly $50,000 to $100,000 annually.
  • They usually hold college degrees, but often do not hold graduate degrees; they make comfortable incomes, but have low accumulated wealth; their work is largely self-directed, but is not high status.

• Wealth

  • Many low to middle-income Americans have had their homes foreclosed upon during the recent recession.
  • While income is often seen as a type of wealth in colloquial language use, wealth and income are two substantially different measures of economic prosperity.
  • While there may be a high correlation between income and wealth, the relationship cannot be described as causal.
  • This graph shows changes in the average net worth of families in each decile of the U.S. income hierarchy.
  • In recent years, the average net worth of high-income families has grown significantly more than that of middle and lower-income families.

• The Upper Class

  • The top .01% of the population, with an annual income of $9.5 million or more, received 5% of the income of the United States in 2007.
  • The main distinguishing feature of this class is their source of income.
  • While the vast majority of people and households derive their income from salaries, those in the upper class derive their income primarily from investments and capital gains.
  • The super-rich, according to Beeghley, are those able to live off their wealth without depending on occupation-derived income.
  • The top .01% of the population, with an annual income of $9.5 million or more, received 5% of the income of the United States in 2007.

• Occupation

  • In the United States, occupation and occupational prestige are primary indicators of social class, along with income, wealth, and education.
  • Sometimes, however, the prestige of an occupation overrides income in determining someone's class membership: professors are often considered upper class though they often have relatively low incomes, while funeral directors are often considered middle class though they have relatively high incomes.
  • Sometimes, however, the prestige of an occupation overrides income in determining someone's class membership: professors are often considered upper class though they often have relatively low incomes, while funeral directors are often considered middle class though they have relatively high incomes.
  • In the United States, occupation is a primary indicator of social class, along with income, wealth, and education.
  • Conversely, funeral directors generally have high incomes and often high educational attainment.

• Education

  • ., educational attainment is strongly correlated to income and occupation, and therefore to social class.
  • For high school graduates, the median household income is $36,835.
  • In the U.S., income is strongly related to educational attainment.
  • The income of people with bachelor's degrees was above the national median, while the median income of people with some college education remained near the national median.
  • Although the incomes of both men and women are associated with higher educational attainment (higher incomes for higher educational attainment), there remains an income gap between races and genders at each educational level.

• Religion

  • On the other hand, income, and therefore social class, is related to an individual's denomination.
  • When one looks at average income by religion, there are clear differences.
  • The highest-earning religion on average is Judaism, with an average income of $72,000 in 2000.
  • Household income, an indicator of social class, can also indicate what religious denomination a person is likely to embrace.
  • America's top income bracket is more likely than other groups to be Jewish, while the lowest bracket is more likely to be Jehovah's Witnesses.