Top 15 Income Earners in America
Top 15 Income Earners in America – 14 men and one woman
A breaking study of IRS data by ProPublica of the 400 highest-earning Americans reveals striking differences in tax rates and identifies the interplay between high income and wealth. Notably, most of the highest earners ‘make’ their money in a given year through sales of stocks or assets and pay a lower capital gains tax rate on those realized gains.
ProPublica also reveals the names of the 15 people who reported the highest income for the five years studied. With one exception – Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs – all are men. All fifteen have made their money through Technology (10 of the 15) or Hedge Funds (5 of the 15).
A gender analysis of the top 400 is not possible, owing to the privacy of non-public figures. Still, ProPublica reveals that many on the list – including a number of women – are heirs, specifically Walmart and DeVos family members. The women among the top earners are still a very small percentage.
ProPublica further reports that most celebrities (the analysis considers George Clooney/$55M, Taylor Swift/$82M and LeBron James/$96M) did not earn enough to place them in this group of ‘top’ American income earners, noting that “It took an average of $110 million per year in income to crack that list.”
Most Celebrities do not earn enough to make the Top Earners List
L to R: Taylor Swift, Lebron James, George Cloony
For comparison with the majority of American earners and taxpayers, ProPublica identifies that ‘A typical American making $40,000 would have to work for 2,750 years to make what the lowest-earning person in this group made in one.”
