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Move Locally Is To
Higher Brackets
An analysis of family earnings in Rappahannock County, with particular reference to the distribution of this income, indicates a steady movement upward into higher brackets.
The progress has been general-at all income levels. Many of the families that were earning $5,000 to $8,000 a few years ago have stepped into the next higher group. Their former spots have been taken, in turn, by those whose incomes had been under $5,000.
As a result, there are now fewer local families in the low brackets and more in the upper ones than ever before.
Does it mean that people are better off, financially, to the extent indicated by their increased earnings? Not entirely.
The Department of Commerce, discussing the matter, points out that the median income of families in the United States rose 6V4 percent in 1967 but, because of price increases, the net gain in purchasing power was only 4 percent.
Rappahannock County’s income distribution figures are contained in a survey made by the Standard Rate and Data Service. The report details, for every section of the country, the portion of the population in each income bracket.
Locally, it shows, some 45.2 percent of the households had spendable incomes of $5,000 or more in the past year after payment of Federal, state and local taxes.
This represented an increase of 8.1 percent in the number of families in that bracket in a two-year period. In the United States the increase was 6.0 percent and, in the South Atlantic States, 6.2 percent.
The study was undertaken to get a better understanding of the income status of each segment of the population than was provided by the all-encompassing “average income” figures. The degree to which the overall earnings in a community are distributed is an Index of the weD-being of the majority of the people. They show whether a disproportionate share goes to a small number of families, leaving a relatively small portion for the majority, or whether the distribution is more uniform. The breakdown figures for Rappahannock County list 19.2 percent of the families with net incomes of $5,000 to $8,000 and mother 10.7 percent in the 58,000 to $10,000 bracket.
91.3%