Report: Almost half of Seattle households make six-figure salary
Sep 26, 2019, 12:42 PM | Updated: 12:43 pm
It’s good to be working in Seattle, for about half of the residents. Seattle is among the top cities that experienced massive salary growth in recent years.
According to the most recent census data, real median income (the middle point) in the United States went up by .8 percent between 2017 and 2018. The current nationwide figure is $61,937. The 2018 median income is the highest that the census has ever recorded.
The Seattle Times’ FYI Guy Gene Balk looked a little deeper at the numbers and found that the median income specific to Seattle is currently $93,500 — a $7,000 jump in 2018 alone. The recent numbers rank Seattle as the city with the third highest pay jump in 2018 (San Francisco and San Jose are first and second).
The job that has disappeared the most in Washington state
The figures show considerable disparities in Seattle incomes, and not just between the haves and the have-nots. White households have the highest median income at $105,000, followed by Asian at $95,800, and so on. Black households remain at the bottom of the list with a median income of $42,500.
But everything considered, at Seattle’s median income, 48 percent of the city’s households pull in a six-figure salary (about 338,000 according to the Times), despite local living expenses registering far higher than the national average. A few years ago, it was estimated that it takes roughly $73,000 to be able to live in Seattle.
Another recent assessment took a look at another angle on Seattle’s quality of living. Wallethub ranked the city as the third best to live in. While it scores high for income growth, air quality, public transportation (that’s debatable), job opportunities, schools, and even coffee shops, Seattle ranks very low for affordability. The city is the 13th worst to live in when it comes to this factor.
