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The increase in D.C.’s personal income was much greater than the national average from 2001 to 2012. How much greater? A whooping 55 percent.
According to an October Economic and Revenue Trends report from the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, D.C’s 2012 collective personal income ($47.28 billion) was 81.8 percent higher than it was in 2001.
Personal Income, a broad measure of residents’ current income from all sources, can be divided into 3 parts: (1) earnings from work (wages, benefits, and proprietors’ income), (2) property income (interest, dividends, and rent, but not including capital gains), and (3) transfer payments (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment Insurance, and pensions).
The report says that D.C.s’ higher income gain can mainly be attributed to earnings from work. In 2012, 71.9 percent of D.C.’s personal income came from this category, while the U.S. share was just 64.6 percent. There’s also good news in the report for people who live in D.C.
Of note, the percent growth in D.C. resident earnings from 2001 to 2012 also out- paced the 68 percent gain in amounts earned in D.C. by residents and non-residents alike. This reflects a combination of less income loss to suburban commuters and more reverse commuting by DC residents.
