Controversial, click-worthy headlines might tell you Mitt Romney will destroy social security, or President Barack Obama is making the U.S. a socialist nation, but median incomes in the U.S. show that on average, Americans earn more now than they did when Obama took office on January 20, 2009.
The sluggish economy has median national household incomes falling to around 2007 levels, but since have risen since January 2009 when Obama took the helm of the world’s most powerful economy.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s historical income tables (table H-8 used in this case, using 2011 dollars), median household incomes were $49,777 in 2009 and rose to $50,054 last year. This year’s numbers are not yet available. Median incomes were $50,303 in 2008, the last year of the George W. Bush administration.
Some states saw median household incomes rise higher than others.
Alabama median income went from $39,980 in 2009 to $42,590 last year. California, on the other hand, continues to shed income. In 2008, when Obama was elected, the state’s median household income was $57,014, but it fell consistently in the Obama years to $53,367 in 2011.
Louisiana is also reeling a bit from the dual disasters of Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the 2008 economic crisis. In 2009, the state’s average income was $45,433. It declined to $40,658 last year, bringing the average below 2008 and 2007 levels, but still above the median income earned over President Bush’s 8 years in the White House.
New York is hanging in there. In 2008, the state’s median income was $50,461. Then Obama took over and it went to $50,216 in 2009 and ended 2011 at $50,636, according to the Census Bureau.
In battleground states like Ohio, median income remains in decline. In 2008, the state median household earned $46,934. It ended 2011 at $44,648. Florida median incomes went from $44,857 in 2008 to $45,631 in 2009. Three years later under Obama, Florida’s incomes rose to $45,105 but they are still below 2006 levels.
Census money income is defined as income received on a regular basis (exclusive of certain money receipts such as capital gains) before payments for personal income taxes, social security, union dues and medicare deductions.
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