Middle class wages, over all, have been pretty stagnant for over a decade. But not everyone's wages have stagnated.
In fact, some people have seen their salaries rise at a rosy clip, while many others have actually become poorer.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis has tracked average full-time income by industry since 1998, with the latest numbers from 2011.
While the average income across industries (which includes employer-provided benefits) has increased by $5,700 in that period, workers in certain occupations have seen their pocketbooks shrink.
7. Lumber/Wood: Makers of wood products have seen an average raise of just $12.50.
Income in wood manufacturing has actually increased substantially over the 13-year time period. But those spoils have not been evenly shared.
While computer-makers have seen their real incomes rise by $24,000 between 1998 and 2011, makers of wood products, like lumber, plywood, wood flooring, cabinets, and manufactured homes, have seen an average raise of just $12.50, from $39,201 in 1998 to $39,214 today.
Income (1998-2011): Up just $12.50.
Why stagnant wages: Wood product manufacturing is closely tied to the construction industry, which is closely tied to how much money people have to build and renovate homes. Since the economy has been fairly weak since the early 2000s, and the housing bubble exploded into a bloody chasm in 2007, it makes sense that the wood makers of America didn't get rich in the last decade.
6. Movies And Music: Incomes in the industry jump around but on average are down $26.
Workers in the motion picture and sound recording industry are the highest-earners on this list, with an annual income of $74,201 in 2011.
It's also an industry with a particularly large range of salaries, points out Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. "I'm sure a lot of those jobs are not fancy Hollywood jobs," she said. "The camera crews, that's a lot of people."
Income drop (1998-2011): Down $26
Why stagnant wages: Predictably, wages dropped in the recession, but they also hit their highest on record in 2010, Average incomes in the industry jump around. One actress lands a $20 million job, or a blockbuster shoots the moon, and the whole thing seems to swing out of whack.
5. Retail: Average wages fell $1,311 from 1998 to 2011.
Retail workers don't make much anyway. In 1998, their average income in 2011 dollars was $33,913, but that factors in all the higher-earning managers.
Income drop (1998-2011): $1,311. "Other retail" (a separate category) saw an income drop of $950.
Why stagnant wages: According to Shierholz, this is because low-wage worker salaries are closely tied to the unemployment rate. "A low unemployment rate brings a lot more bargaining power to low-wage workers," Shierholz explains, and while the late '90s saw very low unemployment, the job market since then has been "weak, weak, weak, weak."
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