To compare median household incomes over time, the authorities divide these annual dollar values by the consumer price index to create annual real median household incomes. The resulting numbers imply that the cumulative increase from 1984 through 2013 was less than 10%, equivalent to less than 0.3% per year.
美国人口普查局测算家庭所有来源的总货币收入，并确定区别收入分布前50%和后50%的分界线。这就是中位家庭收入。为了比较不同时间的中位家庭收入，当局将这些年收入的美元价值除以消费物价指数，得到实际中位家庭收入。这样获得的数字表明，从1984年到2013年的收入累计增长还不到10%，相当于每年增长不到0.3%。