A New York Times analysis shows that America?s lower- and middle-class after tax incomes are no longer the highest in the world. Since 2000, many of the world?s advanced economies have grown lower- and middle-class wages at a far greater pace than wages have grown in the U.S. In addition to stagnating wages, the inequality in America has outpaced many other developed countries. Several countries which have been effected the most by the Great Recession have not outpaced the U.S., namely both Greece and Portugal have seen their wages fall. The significance of these findings is that despite the U.S. still having the greatest GDP per capita, earning it the title of the world?s richest country, not all Americans have enjoyed leading the world to the same degree.
See "The American Middle Class Is No Longer the World?s Richest", David Leonhardt & Kevin Quealy, The New York Times, April 22, 2014