Part of working with the economy has been monitoring it to see when things return to a pre-pandemic normal. New numbers from the Census Bureau indicate that the median household finally achieved an important milestone by returning to what incomes used to mean before Covid-19 and taking inflation into account.

The report Income in the United States: 2023 said that real median household income — real as in taking inflation into account — was $80,610 last year, a 4% increase from the 2022 estimate of $77,540. This is the "first statistically significant annual increase in real median household income since 2019." The data is based on pre-tax, including Social Security and other benefit programs, but not including other transfer programs like SNAP and Medicaid.

The household median increase was 5.7% for non-Hispanic white households ($89,050); 2.8% for black households ($57,490); 0.4% for Hispanic, any race ($65,540); and -0.2% for Asian ($112,800). Income inequality was largely unchanged.