After years of stagnation, incomes in Virginia are on the rise.
In the last five years, median household incomes in Virginia have increased 8.3%. Laura Goren at the Commonwealth Institute says household incomes are just now — finally — exceeding pre-recession levels.
“Virginia’s economy is continuing to grow after the ravages of the recession, and this great news as more working age Virginians are able to find good jobs.”
Hamilton Lombard at the University of Virginia says median household incomes are now above $70,000 for the first time.
“It’s also just in the last year we’ve finally gotten past the all-time high for Virginia, which was actually back in 1999 during the dot-com boom. So it took close to 20 years but we finally got past it and have a new all-time high for the typical household income.”
One note of caution here. 1999 was a peak because it was followed by a recession. The other time income peaked was right before the Great Recession.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
