What Is the Average US Salary (2025) The national average salary is $63,795. That is the sum of all incomes divided by the number of workers.
Income distribution in the United States
Data source: U.S. Census Bureau (2025). Forty-five percent of American households earn less than $75,000 per year. Forty-three percent earn $100,000 or more.
As per recent data by the Bureau of Labour and Statistics, the average salary in the US per month is $6,228 or $74,738 per year. When we speak of 2024, the gross minimum pay in the US comes to $27.77 per hour.
According to the US Census, about 17% of American households make between $100,000 and $149,999, 9.5% of households make between $150,000 and $199,999, and another 14% earn $200,000 or more. But those percentages represent total household incomes where 2 or more people in the home might be working.
According to Statistics Canada, the average income in Canada is around $1,312.08 CAD per week as of August 2025. That means the average annual salary is about $68,228.16 CAD.
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If you make $70,000 per year, your salary per hour is $35. 90. This result is obtained by multiplying your base salary by the number of hours, weeks, and months you work in a year, assuming you work 37.
Yes, $100k CAD is generally a very good salary in Canada, well above the national average and sufficient for a comfortable life, especially for a single person, but its actual value heavily depends on your location (expensive cities like Toronto/Vancouver vs. smaller towns), whether you have dependents (family), and your spending habits, with significant tax deductions making it less than it seems before tax.
In California, a household can be considered middle class if it makes between $63,674 and $191,042. However, that range can change at the city level. SmartAsset used U.S. Census Bureau's 2023 American Community Survey 1-year data and analyzed the median household income in 100 of the largest U.S. cities and all states.
A common starting point is to estimate that you'll need about 70% to 80% of your pre-retirement income to maintain your standard of living in retirement. For example, if you earn $150,000 annually while working, you might need between $105,000 to $120,000 as a starting point in retirement.
A $100k salary for a family of four is considered middle-class but its adequacy depends heavily on location, with high-cost areas like California or New York making it tight, requiring sacrifices, while lower-cost states might allow for comfort and even savings. While it covers basic needs and some extras in many places, it's often not enough for true financial security or a lavish lifestyle, especially with rising costs for housing, childcare, and healthcare.
Yes, supporting a family on $70k a year is possible but challenging and highly dependent on location, family size, and spending habits, often requiring significant budgeting and living in lower cost-of-living areas, as high-cost cities make it extremely difficult, while a family of four might need over $100k in many states. Success hinges on balancing housing costs (ideally under $1,750/month), avoiding high debt, and potentially having one parent stay home to save on childcare, though some families manage with careful planning.
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Asian Americans, particularly Indian Americans, consistently show the highest median household incomes in the U.S., often significantly above the national average and other racial/ethnic groups like White, Black, and Hispanic populations, though income disparities exist within different Asian ethnicities.
These guidelines are adjusted each year for inflation. In 2025, the federal poverty level definition of low income for a single-person household is $15,650 annually. Each additional person in the household adds to the total. For example, the poverty guideline is $32,150 per year for a family of four.
Only a small percentage of Americans retire with $1 million or more in retirement savings, with figures from the Federal Reserve and Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) showing around 3.2% of retirees hitting that mark, though some sources cite slightly lower numbers for all Americans (around 2.5%) or higher estimates for households nearing retirement (over 10% of older households have $1M+ net worth, not just retirement funds). The reality is most retirees have significantly less, with the median for ages 65-74 being around $200,000-$609,000 in retirement accounts.
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In Canada, a middle-class income is defined as a personal annual income ranging from $52,875 to $141,000. Your income is considered middle class income if you earn between 75% to 200% of the median household income after tax.
Here's a wealth class framework described by Bo Hanson, CFA, CFP® that breaks out 5 groups by net worth: the bottom 25%, the lower middle class, upper middle class, upper class, and the wealthiest 10%.
39% of Canadians aged 55-64 have less than $5,000 in savings (-5 pts); 73% have $100,000 or less in savings. More than one in three (36%) women aged 55-64 have no savings at all, compared to one in five (22%) men.
On a $100,000 salary, you could typically afford a home in the $350,000–400,000 range, though the exact number depends on a few factors. Actual affordability depends on elements like location, debt-to-income ratio (DTI), and credit score.