A recent report from Rand Corporation researchers has been making headlines with dramatic claims like median worker pay should be $102,000.
Although the paper is technical, the $102,000 calculation is simple. The median full-year, full-time, prime age (FYFTPA) employee made an inflation-adjusted $47,000 in 1975 and $50,000 in 2018. But real per capital GDP rose almost 120% over that period, from around $26,000 to $57,000. If real median FYFTPA income had risen with per-capita gross domestic product, the median income would have been $102,000.
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