Thank you again, Powayseller, for taking your time to educate us on this point. Great post and great illustration.
I think a similar phenomenon is what keeps the median income looking positive. Even IF salaries are increasing, the demands on incomes in the guise of benefits and other inescapable cost of living increases results in real wage loss. And the astronomical difference between the upper incomes vs what used to be the middle incomes is really skewing the median.
And this relates back to the housing affordability index. A $50,000+ salary a few years back was quite a bit different in actual net/disposable income than it does today.
