Introducing the Staying Even Index and StayingEven.com
Are You Keeping Up?
January 7, 2014
We are pleased to announce the launch of the Staying Even Index and StayingEven.com, a new way for ordinary Americans to find out whether their income growth over time has been enough to get them ahead, or whether they have been falling behind.
We live in a time filled with increasing reports of growing income inequality in our country. One of the basic challenges facing wage earners is knowing how much income growth they actually need to maintain their piece of the economic pie – what is needed to Stay Even and share in the productivity growth in our economy. Cost of Living and Consumer Price Indices are widely quoted by the media but they are not sufficient as they report only inflation and do not include broader economic growth trends. The Staying Even Index solves this problem – it is calculated based upon the per person increase in overall size of the U.S. economy, and as such accounts for both inflation and productivity growth.
Staying Even’s initial 2014 projections, based upon U.S. economic performance through the 3rd quarter, suggest that, to Stay Even in 2014, U.S. residents would need to have experienced at least 3.3% income growth from 2013. To Stay Even over the last five years, residents would need to have experienced income growth of nearly 17%, and to Stay Even over the last full decade, income growth would have needed to be over 30%.
To find out more and to use our Staying Even calculator, visit StayingEven.com. We are pleased to provide this simple resource for companies, individuals, and the press so ordinary Americans can know how much income growth they need to fully participate in the growth of the U.S. economy.
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To find out whether you have gotten ahead and to learn more about the Index, please visit StayingEven.com and follow @StayingEven on Twitter.
StayingEven - Are You Keeping Up?