Reply #16: Maybe this will help

[bain_sidhe]

a table from Citizens for Tax Justice showing the average income for the various "quintiles" (fifths, for us normal people), with the last fifth broken down further to show the difference between the first 15% and the last 5%, and the difference between the first 4% and the last 1% of that last 5%:

Lowest 20% $ 10,400
Second 20% 21,200
Middle 20% 34,500
Fourth 20% 56,300
Next 15% 96,700
Next 4% 201,000
Top 1% 978,000

Note though, that this is an average and not a median, so a couple of high earners can throw it off. That table (pdf format, sorry) is at http://www.ctj.org/pdf/fsl2004.pdf

What may be more to the point of high taxes on wage income on high earners is that they pay so much less on their investment income - as an attempt to equalize the burden a bit without increasing taxes on investment income. These graphics from CTJ show how much:





graphics copied from (sorry, also pdf) http://www.ctj.org/pdf/earnpr.pdf