More children earn less than their parents

Fewer Americans are making more than their parents did—especially if they grew up in the middle class.  (Brookings, 7/25/18)

Surprisingly, the bulk of the decline between the 1940 and 1980 cohorts was concentrated toward the top of the income distribution. As Aparna Mathur and Cody Kallen of AEI wrote in “Poor rich kids?”: “[P]erhaps the most puzzling—and least commented upon—finding is the large positive correlation between the parent’s income and the decline in absolute mobility over the years. Put more simply, the richer the parents, the larger has been the decline in mobility for their kids.”

Presently, our two adult children -- birth years:  1987 and 1990 -- earn nowhere near what their parents earned during their fulltime work years.