Nasty Income Figures, Unless You're Rich

At times I hesitate to publish some information, but I was reading an article about the GM-United Auto Workers' deal in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and some income figures really caught my attention. The problem is, the article doesn't really cite a source for these numbers, although in a previous paragraph, the article mentions John Russo, co-director of the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University, and in the paragraph following the numbers, Susan Helper, a professor of economics at Case Western Reserve University is quoted, so whether either of them is the source is unclear.

Anyway, all disclaimers aside, the article says that 82% of personal income gains in the period from 1980 to 2005 went to the top 1% of the population, and that after inflation adjustments, the top 1% had income gains of 156% during that time period. On the other hand, median compensation for the population as a whole increased 19%.