Chart Detail
Sources of pretax comprehensive income, by income group, 2007 (2011 dollars)
Income fifth | Breakdown of top 10% | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bottom | Second | Middle | Fourth | Top | 90th–<95th percentile | 95th–<99th percentile | Top 1 percent | Average all households | |
Households (millions) | 24.6 | 22.2 | 22.9 | 23.0 | 23.7 | 6.0 | 4.7 | 1.2 | 116.88 (Total) |
Share of total pretax income | |||||||||
Wages | 50.5% | 59.3% | 60.5% | 63.2% | 48.4% | 61.8% | 55.6% | 26.7% | 54.3% |
Proprietors’ income | 6.0 | 2.6 | 1.9 | 1.6 | 2.6 | 2.8 | 4.8 | 1.6 | 2.4 |
Other business income | 0.1 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 8.2 | 3.3 | 7.3 | 15.5 | 4.6 |
Interest and dividends | 1.0 | 1.2 | 1.9 | 2.6 | 7.6 | 5.0 | 7.1 | 12.1 | 5.2 |
Capital gains | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 13.8 | 3.8 | 6.3 | 31.3 | 8.1 |
Pensions | 1.9 | 4.1 | 7.1 | 8.2 | 5.2 | 7.6 | 5.9 | 1.1 | 5.8 |
Cash transfers | 20.3 | 12.2 | 9.6 | 6.6 | 2.3 | 3.3 | 2.3 | 0.4 | 5.7 |
In-kind income | 15.4 | 13.1 | 11.1 | 8.7 | 3.6 | 5.2 | 3.5 | 0.6 | 6.9 |
Imputed taxes | 4.4 | 5.1 | 5.3 | 5.7 | 7.3 | 6.5 | 6.0 | 9.5 | 6.5 |
Other income | 0.2 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.6 |
Total | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
Average | |||||||||
Wages | $10,082 | $27,346 | $42,341 | $64,528 | $139,009 | $121,552 | $174,477 | $542,615 | $56,561 |
Proprietors’ income | 1,198 | 1,199 | 1,330 | 1,634 | 7,467 | 5,511 | 15,008 | 32,516 | 2,500 |
Other business income | 20 | 277 | 630 | 1,123 | 23,551 | 6,580 | 22,803 | 315,001 | 4,792 |
Interest and dividends | 200 | 553 | 1,330 | 2,655 | 21,828 | 9,890 | 22,130 | 245,904 | 5,416 |
Capital gains | 60 | 184 | 420 | 1,123 | 39,635 | 7,451 | 19,908 | 636,099 | 8,437 |
Pensions | 379 | 1,891 | 4,969 | 8,372 | 14,935 | 15,047 | 18,435 | 22,355 | 6,041 |
Cash transfers | 4,053 | 5,626 | 6,719 | 6,739 | 6,606 | 6,410 | 7,082 | 8,129 | 5,937 |
In-kind income | $3,075 | $6,041 | $7,768 | $8,883 | $10,339 | $10,138 | $11,039 | $12,194 | $7,187 |
Imputed taxes | 878 | 2,352 | 3,709 | 5,820 | 20,966 | 12,745 | 18,971 | 193,065 | 6,771 |
Other income | 40 | 646 | 840 | 1,225 | 3,446 | 2,362 | 3,245 | 26,419 | 625 |
Total | 19,965 | 46,114 | 69,985 | 102,102 | 287,208 | 196,838 | 313,616 | 2,032,265 | 104,163 |
Shares of total income categories claimed by each group | |||||||||
Wages | 3.8% | 9.2% | 14.7% | 22.5% | 49.9% | 11.0% | 12.4% | 9.9% | 100.0% |
Proprietors’ income | 9.8 | 8.8 | 10.1 | 12.5 | 58.8 | 11.0 | 23.4 | 13.0 | 100.0 |
Other business income | 0.1 | 1.0 | 2.4 | 4.3 | 92.3 | 6.5 | 17.7 | 62.5 | 100.0 |
Interest and dividends | 0.8 | 2.0 | 4.9 | 9.8 | 82.6 | 9.5 | 16.6 | 47.1 | 100.0 |
Capital gains | 0.2 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 2.6 | 95.8 | 4.6 | 9.5 | 77.9 | 100.0 |
Pensions | 1.3 | 5.9 | 16.0 | 27.1 | 49.7 | 12.7 | 12.2 | 3.8 | 100.0 |
Cash transfers | 14.4 | 18.1 | 22.3 | 22.5 | 22.7 | 5.6 | 4.8 | 1.4 | 100.0 |
In-kind income | 9.0 | 16.0 | 21.3 | 24.4 | 29.3 | 7.3 | 6.2 | 1.7 | 100.0 |
Imputed taxes | 2.7 | 6.6 | 10.8 | 17.0 | 62.9 | 9.7 | 11.3 | 29.3 | 100.0 |
Other income | 0.7 | 9.9 | 13.3 | 19.5 | 56.6 | 9.8 | 10.6 | 22.0 | 100.0 |
Average | 4.0 | 8.3 | 13.1 | 19.1 | 55.5 | 9.6 | 12.0 | 19.9 | 100.0 |
Source: Authors' analysis of Congressional Budget Office (2010)

Documentation and methodology
Underlying data are from the Congressional Budget Office, Average Federal Taxes by Income Group, “Sources of Income for All Households, by Household Income Category, 1979 to 2007” [Excel spreadsheet]. Shares of pretax income, by income source, are given by CBO for the bottom, second, middle, fourth, and top fifth, and the top 10, 5, and 1 percent. Average pretax income is defined as the sum of each income groups’ wages, proprietors’ income, other business income, interest and dividends, capital gains pensions, cash transfers, in-kind income, imputed taxes, and other income. For the purposes of this chapter, capital income is defined as the sum of capital gains, interest and dividends, and other business income categories. Sources of income for the groups are calculated by multiplying the shares of each income source by average pretax income. To calculate average pretax income by source for the 95th–< 99th percentile, the aggregate incomes of the top 5 percent were subtracted from the aggregate incomes of the top 10 percent and divided by the total number of households in the 95th–<99th percentile. Aggregate income is calculated by multiplying the number of households in each income group by average pretax income source. The number of households is calculated by subtracting the number of households in the top 5 percent from the number of households in the top 10 percent. The same calculation is done for the 95th–<99th percentile using the top 5 percent and the top 1 percent. The share of total income categories claimed by each group is calculated by dividing the aggregate income for each income source in each income group by the total aggregate income for all households, minus negative income. Data are inflated to 2011 dollars using the CPI-U-RS.