How much does the top 10% make?

Landing in the top 10% is a fairly attainable goal for upwardly mobile Americans. A study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), found that the average earnings of those in the top 10% were roughly $173,000 in 2020.

Is the top 10% wealthy?

People with the top 1% of net worth (opens in new tab) in the U.S. in 2022 had $10,815,000 in net worth. The top 2% had a net worth of $2,472,000. The top 5% had $1,030,000. The top 10% had $854,900 .

How much does the top 20% make?

In fact, the minimum threshold to be among the top 20% of earners nationwide ($130,545 ) is more than two times greater than the median household income and nearly five times greater than the maximum threshold to be among the bottom 20% of earners nationwide ($26,685).

What is considered rich income?

In the U.S. overall, it takes a net worth of $2.2 million to be considered “wealthy” by other Americans — up from $1.9 million last year, according to financial services company Charles Schwab's annual Modern Wealth Survey.

What is considered wealthy by age?

Higher earnings bring more opportunities to buy property and other assets that can grow in value over time and help people build wealth. ... Household net worth by age. Age of head of family Median net worth Average net worth 35-44 $91,300 $436,200 45-54 $168,600 $833,200 55-64 $212,500 $1,175,900 65-74 $266,400 $1,217,700 2 more rows

Does net worth include home?

Your net worth is what you own minus what you owe. It's the total value of all your assets—including your house, cars, investments and cash —minus your liabilities (things like credit card debt, student loans, and what you still owe on your mortgage).

How much does the top 3% make?

This section's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Data Top third Top 3% Household income Lower threshold (annual gross income) $65,000 $200,000 Exact percentage of households 34.72% 2.67% Personal income (age 25+) 2 more rows

What percentile is 100K income?

How Many People Make Over $100K? Roughly speaking, only the top 10% of the income earners in the U.S. eventually make more than $100K a year.

How many Americans make more than 200k?

Number of households in the United States by household income in 2020 (in millions) Household income in U.S. dollars Number of households in millions $75,000 to $99,999 15.61 $100,000 to $149,999 19.13 $150,000 to $199,999 8.69 $200,000 or more 10.1 3 more rows Sep 30, 2022

How much does the top 2 percent make?

Across the US, the average income for the top 2% of all earners is $206,000 . But among women in the top 2%, the average salary is $145,000, compared to $371,000 for men, according to an analysis of the 2015 American Community Survey by labor economics research firm Job Search Intelligence (JSI).

How much do the top 50 percent make?

The Middle – 50% Here's another number that may surprise you – to be in the top half (50%) of all earners you need to earn somewhere between $25,000 – $29,999.99 a year (again, towards the higher end of that range). The number of people earning less than $30,000 accounts for 44.76% of the population.

How much do you have to make to be in the top 1 %?

Another common metric is net worth, which is the total value of a household's assets minus liabilities. Data shows that an American household needs to have a net worth of at least $10,374,030 to be in the top 1% of the U.S.

How much money do you have to make to be in the top 01?

Using data from 2018 from the IRS and adjusting to 2021 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index to account for inflation, SmartAsset found that to be deemed part of the top 1% of earners nationally, an American family needs an income of $597,815 .

How Much Income Puts You in the Top 1%, 5%, 10%? (2024)

Table of Contents

Annual Wages of Top Earners
Impact of the Financial Crisis
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Income Disparity
Frequently Asked Questions
Are the Rich Getting Richer?
How Much Would I Have to Make to Be in the Top 0.1%?
How Many Billionaires Are There?
The Bottom Line

You'll need to make at least six figures per year

Julia Kagan

Full Bio

Julia Kagan is a financial/consumer journalist and senior editor, personal finance, of Investopedia.

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Updated September 17, 2022

Reviewed by

Doretha Clemon

Reviewed byDoretha Clemon

Full Bio

Doretha Clemons, Ph.D., MBA, PMP, has been a corporate IT executive and professor for 34 years. She is an adjunct professor at Connecticut State Colleges & Universities, Maryville University, and Indiana Wesleyan University. She is a Real Estate Investor and principal at Bruised Reed Housing Real Estate Trust, and a State of Connecticut Home Improvement License holder.

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Fact checked byJiwon Ma

When you read all thosestories about the 1%—or even the top 5% or 10%—it may raise the question: How much money do you need to pull in to be in one of those groups? You'll need at least six figures to count yourself among the nation's top earners, according to data published by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

Key Takeaways

You’ll need to pull in at least six figures to be a top earner.
Historically, the wealthiest have grown richer much faster than the rest of the population.
Income disparity is highlighted among the top and lowest earners in terms of how much the distribution of wages has changed since 1979.

How to Make the Top 1% List

To be in the top 1%, you must have an annual wage of at least $823,763, according to the Economic Policy Institute, That excludes sources of unearned income like investment returns.

Annual Wages of Top Earners

The latest available data from the EPI show that in 2020 annual wages for the top 1% reached $823,763, up 7.3% compared to 2019. How much do you need to earn to be in the top 0.1%? A hefty $3,212,486, which is almost 10% more than that group earned a year before. Wages for the bottom 90% rose at a much more modest rest of just 1.7% over the same period, with an average income of $40,085.

2020 Average Annual Wages
Group	Avg. Wages
Top 0.1% of Earners	$3,212,486
Top 1% of Earners	$823,763
Top 5% of Earners	$342,987
Top 10% of Earners	$173,176

Historically, the rich have become richer faster than the rest of the population. EPI research has found that since 1979, the top 1% saw their wages grow by 179% and the top 0.1% by more than twice as much⁠—389%. Wages for the bottom 90% only grew 28% in the same time period.

The latest figures were drawn from Social Security Administration data, allowing EPI researchers to estimate wage trends in more precise segments and tomeasure trends.

The study is about wages, not income as a whole⁠; it does not include investment income, for example, which is not part of Social Security data.

Impact of the Financial Crisis

During the financial crisis from 2007 to 2009, wages fell furthest among the top 0.1% and 1% of earners. In 2020, the top 0.1% had still not yet bounced back to what they earned in 2007.Among the top 5% of earners, wages grew 13.4% since 2007, the year before the Great Recession. Those in the top 10% saw 16.5% growth.

In the decade since the recovery from the Great Recession (2009-2019), the bottom 90% saw annual wage growth of just 1.7%, compared to the top 1.0% and top 0.1%, which experienced 11.2% and 5.8% growth, respectively.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Even as the coronavirus pandemic wiped out jobs and created hardship for many Americans, the well-off have continued to amass wealth. The richest 1% of American households added about $4.5 trillion in wealth from the end of March to the end of December 2021. And Federal Reserve data shows that as of 2021, the top 1% of earners now hold 27% of the nation's wealth, a larger share than the 26.8% held by the middle 60% of U.S. households (often used to define the middle class by economists).

Income Disparity

Income disparity is the most dramatic when you look at how the distribution of wages has changed since 1979. As the EPI reports: "The bottom 90% earned 69.8% of all earnings in 1979 but only 60.2% in 2020. In contrast, the top 1% nearly doubled its share of earnings from 7.3% in 1979 to 13.8% in 2020." The EPI also points out that the top 0.1% more than tripled their share of earnings to 5.4% in 2020 from 1.6% in 1979.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are the Rich Getting Richer?

Yes. Between 1979 and 2020, the wages of the top 1% grew by 119.2%, while the rate of growth for those in the top 0.1% was more than twice as high: 389.1%. Compare that to the 28.2% growth for those in the bottom 90% during the same period. According to the Economic Policy Institute, “The upward distribution of wages from the bottom 90% to the top 1.0% that was evident over the period from 1979 to 2019 was especially strong in the 2020 pandemic year, yielding historically high wage levels and shares of all wages for the top 1.0% and 0.1%.”

How Much Would I Have to Make to Be in the Top 0.1%?

Your annual wage would have to be almost $3.21 million. This is an all-time high as of 2020, and 2021 looks to set another record.

How Many Billionaires Are There?

According to the 2022 Forbes annual wealthiest list, the number of billionaires in the world decreased by 87. And 1,000 of them are richer than they were a year ago.

The U.S. has more billionaires than any other country: 735. China, including Hong Kong and Macao, is close behind with 607. Highlighting a racial wealth gap, only eight of America's billionaires are African American: businessmen Robert F. Smith and David Steward, Oprah Winfrey, Kanye West, Rihanna, Michael Jordan, Jay-Z, and Tyler Perry.

The Bottom Line

To be a top earner in the U.S., you’ll need to make at least six figures. The wealthiest have grown richer much faster than the rest of the population since 1979. Income disparity stands out in particular among the highest and lowest earners in regards to how the distribution of wages has changed since then.

Article Sources

Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. These include white papers, government data, original reporting, and interviews with industry experts. We also reference original research from other reputable publishers where appropriate. You can learn more about the standards we follow in producing accurate, unbiased content in oureditorial policy.

Economic Policy Institute. “Wage Inequality Continued to Increase in 2020.”
Social Security Administration. “Social Security Wage Statistics for 2018.”
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. “Wealth by Wealth Percentile Group.”
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. “Wealth by Income Percentile.”
Forbes. “Forbes World’s Billionaires List.”

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