--- title: Here's How Much You Need to Make to Be in the Top 10% description: The richest 10% earned $170,500 last year, nearly three times what a typical household earned. authors: - name: Ian Salisbury role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/ian-salisbury-2/ bio: Ian Salisbury was a senior editor at Money, focusing on investing, banks and mortgage. at_money_since: 2013 articles: 91 covers: - Economy and Politics - Housing - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes former_staff: true published: '2017-09-12T19:30:13.000Z' modified: '2017-09-12T19:30:13.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - Earnings - Wealth word_count: 275 canonical: https://money.com/what-richest-10-earned-in-2016/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Senior couple and mature couple toasting each other with drinks on yacht](https://img.money.com/2017/09/170912-top-earners.jpg) The top 10% of earners made at least $170,500, last year — nearly three times the amount the typical American household earned. The new figures come from the Census Bureau's [annual study](https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2017/income-povery.html) of incomes, poverty and health insurance in the U.S. Within the report, there were several nuggets to be optimistic about. After stalling out following the housing crisis, middle-class incomes are growing again at a healthy rate. The median income in the U.S. is now $59,000, which rose by more than $1,800 from $57,200 in 2015. That 3.2% gain, which accounts for inflation, was only slightly below the 3.7% gain that the top 5% of earners enjoyed. The poverty rate also declined last year by 0.8 percentage points to 12.7%. How the Census Bureau defines poverty depends on household. For the classic nuclear family with two adults and two kids, the income threshold is just over $24,000. For a lone senior it's roughly $11,500, [according to Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-poverty/u-s-poverty-rate-falls-median-income-rises-in-2016-census-idUSKCN1BN1VN?il=0). In all, the Census Bureau said, there were 40.6 million people living in poverty last year — 2.5 million fewer than in 2015. One thing that could boost the fortunes of the wealthy in 2017 and 2018 is Trump's tax plan, [currently being peddled by](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/12/mnuchin-tax-reform-is-trumps-number-one-priority-we-will-get-it-done.html) Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. While details are still sketchy, [one analysis by the Tax Policy Center](http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/implications-what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-president-trumps-tax-plan/full) found it would hand the top 5% of earners — which the TPC estimated as taking in $308,000 and up — would see an average tax cut of more than $25,000. Those in the middle fifth of the income spectrum, would see also see a cut, albeit a smaller one, worth about $2,000 on average. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/what-richest-10-earned-in-2016/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Wealth", "item": "https://money.com/wealth/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Here's How Much You Need to Make to Be in the Top 10%" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/what-richest-10-earned-in-2016/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/what-richest-10-earned-in-2016/", "name": "Here's How Much You Need to Make to Be in the Top 10%", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2017-09-12T19:30:13.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/what-richest-10-earned-in-2016/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/what-richest-10-earned-in-2016/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2017-09-12T19:30:13.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Here's How Much You Need to Make to Be in the Top 10%", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2017/09/170912-top-earners.jpg", "width": 5142, "height": 3428, "caption": "170912-top-earners" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ian Salisbury", "url": "https://money.com/author/ian-salisbury-2/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/ian-salisbury-2/#author", "description": "Ian Salisbury was a senior editor at Money, focusing on investing, banks and mortgage.", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/06/Ian-Salisbury.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2017-09-12T19:30:13.000Z", "description": "The richest 10% earned $170,500 last year, nearly three times what a typical household earned.", "abstract": "The richest 10% earned $170,500 last year, nearly three times what a typical household earned.", "@id": "https://money.com/what-richest-10-earned-in-2016/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2017-09-12T19:30:13.000Z", "wordCount": 275, "keywords": [ "Earnings", "Wealth" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Wealth", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth" ] } ] } ] } ```