The Rising Class

Salaried executives--those French-cuffed "hired hands" of U.S. business--now outnumber self-employed professionals and businessmen on the higher income-tax rungs. The Bureau of the Census last week reported that the families of managers and salaried professionals now account for about half of those in the top 5% of U.S. incomes, while the self-employed account for only a fourth--an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1950. To be in the top 5% took a $9,000 income then; now it takes more than $14,385.

This remarkable turnabout in U.S. income patterns is largely the result of the postwar growth of large corporations and their intense competition for talent. Increasingly, highly trained students getting out of college find more of what they want--in terms of interest, challenge and salary--in the corporation, pass up any opportunities to strike out on their own.

Though the salaried man is on the rise, a study put out by the Internal Revenue Service (which has reason to know where a lot of the salaried man's money goes) last week showed that he still has little chance of entering the ranks of the very rich. Of the 398 people who had incomes of more than $1,000,000 in 1961--more people than in any other year since 1929--practically all were either completely self-employed or drew very little of their income from salaries.

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