HOW MUCH INCOME DO YOU NEED TO BE RICH?

The following data is from the most excellent work of Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty. It is based on all income excluding transfer payments (welfare, food stamps, unemployment insurance, housing subsidies) and includes realized capital gains.

In 2008:

The average family in the United States earned $54,315.

The average family in the bottom 90% earned $31,244.

To make it into the top 10% of income earners a family would have to make $109,062 per year or more.

To make it into the top 5% of income earners a family would have to make $152,726 per year or more.

To make it into the top 1% of income earners a family would have to make $368,238 per year or more.

To make it into the top .5% of income earners a family would have to make $558,726 per year or more.

To make it into the top .1% of income earners a family would have to make $1,695,136 per year or more.

To make it into the top .01% of income earners a family would have to make $9,141,190 per year or more.

15,246 of the 152,462,000 U.S. families made it into this last group. They had average incomes of $27,342,212.