Over the past 28 years, the distribution of wage income in Oregon has continued to become more unequal. In 2018, employees who worked all four quarters of the year earned a total of nearly $89.3 billion in covered wages, an inflation-adjusted increase of more than $47 billion since 1990. The number of four-quarter workers rose by 63 percent during that time period, with the average four-quarter inflation-adjusted wage rising from $43,000 to $56,100. The gains in wage income, however, have not been evenly shared by all workers. High-wage workers' slice of the wage pie has increased in size, while that of low- and middle-wage workers has shrunk.
In 1990, the median wage of the top 1 percent of all four-quarter workers was 7 times that of the median for all four-quarter workers at an inflation-adjusted $250,800. By 2018, wages for the top 1 percent workers increased by 52 percent to $380,500. Meanwhile, the median wage for all workers increased just 14 percent over the same period. In 2018, the median wage of the top 1 percent of workers was 9 times the median for all workers ($40,979).
To learn more, read Special Projects Analyst Barbara Peniston's full article here.
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