More millionaires in Oregon, but ordinary earners’ wage growth is near flat

Published 1:45 pm Monday, November 25, 2019

For a lot of Oregonians, the Great Recession still lingers to a troubling extent.

In the 10 years since the severe economic downturn officially ended, the typical Oregonian’s annual income has increased by only $2,500.

The average income of the top 0.1% of earners in Oregon, meanwhile, has jumped by $1.9 million. For the rest of the top 1%, the average increase is $193,000.

These numbers come from the Oregon Center for Public Policy’s new report, “Income of Oregon’s Ultra-Rich Sets New Record.” The report concludes that the income of the “richest 1-in-1,000 Oregon families” is at an all-time high.

“Never has the gap between the richest Oregonians and the typical Oregonian been so wide,” the report concluded.

This income inequality comes at a time when, by many measures, the state’s economy is doing very well.

The unemployment rate in Oregon is about 4.1% right now (nationally it’s at about 3.6%). The unemployment rate reached 11.9% in the state during the worst of the last recession.

The Oregon Center for Public Policy acknowledged in August that the state’s “labor market is stronger than it has been in decades,” but the think tank added that “the recovery since the end of the Great Recession has bypassed parts of Oregon and done little to lift the wages of the typical worker.”

The OCPP’s stated goal is “to use research and analysis to advance policies and practices that improve the economic and social opportunities of all Oregonians.”

Those in the top 1% of earners in Oregon pulled down $418,500 or more in 2017. Their average income that year stood at just over $1 million, the report states.

The median 2017 income in Oregon was $37,200.

Another report released this month by OCPP found that the number of households with annual income of $1 million or more “has risen faster in Oregon than any other state,” with Washington coming in second and Florida third. Willamette Week originally reported on these findings from the Oregon public-policy institute.

While there are more millionaires in Oregon, with the stock market tripling in the past decade, the rest of the state’s earners aren’t keeping up.

The OCPP points out that in 1980 it took the earnings of 10 median-income households in Oregon to match that of the average Oregonian in the top 1%. Twenty-seven years later, the incomes of 29 median earners were needed to equal the 1% average.

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