Median Income

Median income is the level where half of earners are above and half below — the middle of the distribution rather than the average. It's the honest headline for 'typical' pay because income distributions have a long right tail: a handful of very high earners pull the mean well above what most people experience. When mean income grows faster than median income, the gains are concentrating at the top, which is why the gap between the two is itself an inequality signal.