No matter how you slice this - mean, median or average, the author is on solid ground. Lets compare apples with apples and look at raw data.
In 2019, there were 128.58 million households in the United States.
In 2018, there were 35.7 million single-person households, composing 28 percent of all households.
• $31,099 The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a MEDIAN personal income of $865 weekly for ALL full-time workers in 2017.
The proportion of dual earner married couples more than doubled between 1960 and 2000, increasing from 25 percent to 60 percent (Pew Research Center, 2015).
• $61,937 Real median HOUSEHOLD income in the United States increased 0.8% to $61,937 between 2017 and 2018.
• Note, in these dual/two income households, one person is earning LESS than the median single income household. More citations from report include:
• married households with two earners are about 10 percent more likely to file for bankruptcy from 2002-2004 than other married households
• Those households with children also exhibit a higher likelihood of filing.
• In addition, we show the married two-earner households spend a higher proportion of their after-tax income than other married households, including spending more on a large fixed expense, housing. These findings are consistent with two-earner households saving less and/or borrowing more, making them more financially vulnerable to negative shocks such as a health emergency or job loss. If a similar shock occurs to a married, one-earner household, the one-earner household will have a better ability to self-insure by having the non-earner become an earner. If a two-earner household experiences a similar shock, there is less ability for the unaffected earner to make up for the lost earnings because that person is already employed.
Note: only 88% of all income households are reported. The other 12% of households are so extreme and their circumstances so unusual a median would be useless. This not included category of people are the top 10% of income earners (like Bezos, Gates, Dimon and Zuckerberg) plus a substantial percentage who do not work, and will never work, that live off inheritances. The remaining 2% have no earned income and include the homeless who have zero housing and utility bills and the tiny number of people receiving welfare benefits.
