You can use the Staying Even Index and Calculator to determine how much income growth you need to keep up in the U.S. economy.
Staying Even is defined as capturing your share of the overall economic growth in the United States - this is not an inflation calculator. For more on the index and how this is calculated, see About the Index.
The Index is simple to use:
- On the Home Page, select a "Start Year" and input a "Start Amount". The Start Amount can be an hourly wage, an annual salary, or any other number you choose.
- Then select an "End Year" or leave that selection blank. If you do not select an End Year, the index will default to the most recent year for which we have actual or projected data.
- Hit "Submit". The site will then tell you how much earnings you need in the End Year to Stay Even with the amount of earnings in the Start Year.
Past Years
You can also calculate how much your current earnings would have been equivalent to in a past year. To do so, input the most current year as "Start Year", your current earnings as the "Starting Amount", and the historical year you want to compare to as your "End Year". The Index will return the equivalent earnings in the prior year selected.
Year-to-Year Changes
If you are interested in year-to-year changes in the Index please see the Raw Data tab, which show you the underlying inputs into the index as well as the index overall value each year since 1952.