TIME TO MOVE?

This Is the State Where It’s Easiest to Be in the 1 Percent

Apologies to Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, and especially D.C.

Those of you looking to rocket yourselves into the nation’s top 1 percent of earners may want to consider a move: Axios reports that based on IRS data, while an annual income of $800,000 is considered the national bar for entry into this fiscal bracket, it’s a different story when you look at individual states. In West Virginia, an annual income of $426,000 puts a person in the 1 percent, the lowest figure in the country. The highest thresholds, by contrast, are in Washington, D.C., at $1.22 million per year; Connecticut, at $1.17 million; Massachusetts, at $1.13 million; and California, at $1.05 million. Important to note, however, is that the average adjusted gross income for West Virginia in 2021 was $60,300 versus $112,500 in California. That’s thanks to differences in local job markets and industries and population density, but the numbers track with averages released earlier this year. Meanwhile, the national average salary for the U.S. was about $66,622 in 2023, a long way off even from the low end of the 1 percent.