Report finds steep drop in MN median income

Minnesota's median household income has fallen to mediocre levels, according to a St. Paul-based economic justice group.

A new report from St. Paul-based Growth and Justice finds that from 2000 to 2010, the state's median income fell by 18 percent after figures were adjusted for inflation. That was the steepest decline in the nation, said the group's president, Dane Smith.

"We came very close for the first time since the early 1990s to the U.S. median income," Smith said. "That's pretty perilously close to average, and of course, Minnesotans are used to being above average in everything."

The state's median income has partially rebounded to about $58,000, Smith said, but that's still much lower than it was at its peak.

The group warns that Minnesota's prosperity is at stake if the gaps between poor and wealthy continue to widen.