Comparing Presidents, Male and Female Real Median Income

This post is on men’s income, women’s income, and how the two compare, using data from the Census which goes back to 1953. FWIW, I think this is something Dems care about more than Reps. The comparison between males and females is not perfect… they may work different hours, and on different jobs. Still, its an interesting look at how society has evolved over time. As is my usual practice, I’m going to look at things by Presidential administration. Does the President have much to do with? Well, some. The President is in charge of the Justice Department, and the Justice Department, in theory, looks into discrimination, and even can file suit if it deems necessary. Presidents also nominate judges who may look more or less favorable at such issues.

Here are some graphs…

Here are some summary tables…

Since 1953, real median income for females has grown faster (1.83% per year) than real income for males has grown (0.87%) … thus narrowing the gap. Not a surprise… women were virtually second class citizens in 1953.

What else do we see… real median incomes for men fared best under JFK/LBJ, Ike and Clinton, with the Bush boys bringing up the rear. (That last part of the sentence seems to be true a lot in this series of posts, doesn’t it?) Female median income fared best under JFK/LBJ, Reagan, and Clinton with GW and Ike at the back of the pack. But the President who did “best” at income equality was GHW… mostly because he was in the middle of the pack for female real median income growth, while male real median income growth in his administration cratered. JFK/LBJ, under whom both genders fared the best, falls in the middle of the pack when it comes to gender income inequality. It seems a pretty perverse result, frankly. Maybe this ratio is not such a good measure after all.

For my next post in the series, I want to look at income in black and white, so to speak, and see if the same thing applies.