Income and Wage Gains are Slow to Come

In 1995, all Alaskan residents-that is, its men, women and children-earned $14.5 billion. During the same year, they also became $357 million dollars richer. These appear to be impressive earnings, and by some measures they are. For example, dividing total state income by the state's entire population, each man, woman and child earned on average $24,002 in 1995. However, looking over the past two decades, this represents considerable slowdown in the rate of growth for income. (See Figure 1.) During most of the nineties, Alaska's gains in personal income have lagged behind those of the rest of the nation.