“If $5.15 hourly minimum wage had risen at the same rate as CEO compensation since 1990, it would now stand at $23.03.” (Source: 2006 Mother Jones article, which cites DOL and UFE.) I’ll note that my home, Washington state, has the highest minimum wage of any state (at $8.67/hr). The New York Times has an interesting interactive map of indicators of well being. (I’m editing this post to insert a recent MJ article about 10 major US corporations that paid negative tax rates in the last 2 years.) Lastly, below is a long image that someone culled from another recent Mother Jones article, entitled: It’s the inequality, stupid.
SOURCES:
Income distribution: Emmanuel Saez (Excel)
Net worth: Edward Wolff (PDF)
Household income/income share: Congressional Budget Office
Real vs. desired distribution of wealth: Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely (PDF)
Net worth of Americans vs. Congress: Federal Reserve (average); Center for Responsive Politics (Congress)
Your chances of being a millionaire: Calculation based on data from Wolff (PDF); US Census (household and population data)
Member of Congress’ chances: Center for Responsive Politics
Wealthiest members of Congress: Center for Responsive Politics
Tax cut votes: New York Times (Senate; House)
Wall street profits, 2007-2009: New York State Comptroller (PDF)
Unemployment rate, 2007-2009: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Home equity, 2007-2009: Federal Reserve, Flow of Funds data, 1995-2004 and 2005-2009 (PDFs)
CEO vs. worker pay: Economic Policy Institute
Historic tax rates: Calculations based on data from The Tax Foundation
Federal tax revenue: Joint Committee on Taxation (PDF)