2019 Median Income Data Released
The extended warranty on my wife’s car aged out after Memorial Day, so, when the Check Engine light lit up I expected pain.
The active rocker arm oil control valve (which we didn’t know we had) disintegrated, spewing fragments into the top of the engine. Jump to the end: about $1,500, after coupons.
Coming two months before my daughter’s wedding, the cost stung.
This morning the census released the state median household income data for 2019. The numbers for Missouri, of course, stung.
In 2019 the national median household income grew to $65,712, up 6.8% . In Missouri the 2019 median household income jumped to $57,409 – up from $53,560 in 2018 (about 7%). Alas, Missouri continues to trail the nation. In 2019 the typical Missouri household had $160 a week less than the national median.
Think of a fulltime worker getting $4.00 an hour less pay, just because they live in Missouri.
And, while nationwide the poverty rate slipped to 10.5% – down 1.5% in a year – in Missouri the poverty rate remained at 12.9% (compared to 11.2% in Iowa and 11.4% in Kansas).
Remember, the median is the balance point between the number above and below. In Missouri, for example, 25% of households had median income above $75,000 in 2019 while 20% of households struggled on less than $25,000 a year.
Back to my wife’s car, a 2015 Chevrolet Malibu. That’s not an extravagant vehicle. A working class household could afford that six year old Chevy sedan. The valve repair, however, would consume more than a week and a half of that typical family’s total income. For a household below $25,000 a year, the repair consumes more than half a month’s money.
In Illinois, with a 2019 median of $69,187, the same repair costs the typical family about two days less in earnings.
Missouri falling behind is not news. Back in the 1990’s the Wall Street Journal referred to Missouri as a ‘low wage southern state.’
The Show Me State’s Republican leadership basks in that reference. They want Missouri to be a low tax state and accept the pain that creates. That’s why Medicaid Expansion and other government efforts to assist struggling families remains so critical.
Glenn