The Top Wage Earners

[SEC=UGA]

The Social Security Administration asked its inspector general to investigate how a $32.3 billion mistake skewed its statistics on 2009 wages in the U.S.

 

Two people were found to have filed multiple W-2 forms that made them into multibillionaires, an agency official said yesterday. Those reports threw statistical wage tables out of whack and, in figures released Oct. 15, made it appear that top U.S. earners had seen their pay quintuple in 2009 to an average of $519 million.

 

The agency yesterday released corrected tables that showed the average incomes of the top earners, in fact, declined 7.7 percent to $84 million each.

 

Social Security spokesman Mark Lassiter provided few details about the W-2 forms and declined to answer questions about how they were filed, how many were filed by the same two people, or if a hoax was suspected. “We call it erroneous, you call it fictitious. It’s the same thing,” Lassiter said. “There were some invalid, I guess is the best way to put it, W- 2s.”

 

The W-2 is a tax form on which employers report their workers’ compensation. Taxpayers must provide a copy when they file tax returns.

 

Lassiter said this is the first time Social Security statistics have been affected by erroneous filings. A written request detailing concerns about the data was sent yesterday to the Office of the Inspector General, he said.

 

Jonathan Lasher, a spokesman for the inspector general’s office, confirmed the request. “It wouldn’t be an actionable investigation at this point, more properly an allegation, but we are looking into it,” Lasher said.

 

High Earners

 

The Social Security Administration figures are based on forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. It wasn’t known yesterday whether the IRS was conducting its own investigation into how the W-2 forms were submitted. IRS spokesman Terry Lemons said he didn’t “have any immediate comment.”

 

Bloomberg News wrote a report last week about high-earners’ income after questioning Social Security officials about record- high wages found in the statistics. The agency’s staff confirmed the data, though they began reviewing W-2s by hand after the news story was published.

 

Yesterday, the Social Security office announced it found “invalid” wages from two of the 74 top wage earners detailed in its data.

 

The data were part of the National Average Wage Index and contained the pay for 74 Americans who earned more than $50 million in 2009. The Social Security review found two tax filers, between them, reported more than $32 billion in wages and officials decided to invalidate those filings.

 

Error Discovered

 

“We discovered an error in the net compensation for wage earners earning $50 million and over and have adjusted those figures downward,” Lassiter said in an initial e-mail.

 

The combined total earned by the top Americans fell to $6 billion last year from $11.9 billion in 2008, the agency said in the corrected report.

 

A comparison of the Oct. 15 data and the corrected figures show the change affected wage statistics more broadly. The Oct. 15 index indicated that the average wage nationwide fell $384 to $39,269 in 2009. The corrected index shows averages wages fell $598 to $39,055.

 

Lassiter said he couldn’t explain why the mistake wasn’t detected previously.

 

“We have checks in place, but these slipped through,” he said. The error would have eventually been detected as part of a reconciliation of the data with the IRS, he said.

 

To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan J. Donmoyer in Washington at rdonmoyer@bloomberg.net

[gbpfan1231]

You sure wouldn't want to pay a little closer attention to 74 items that would be way too difficult. But I guess it is just easier to scream evil rich??

 

Wouldn't the Govt be short some tax revenue from these two people - I guess that fell through the cracks also????

[The Irish Doggy]

Wow. Just wow.

[Ursa Majoris]

The agency yesterday released corrected tables that showed the average incomes of the top earners, in fact, declined 7.7 percent to $84 million each.

 

The Oct. 15 index indicated that the average wage nationwide fell $384 to $39,269 in 2009. The corrected index shows averages wages fell $598 to $39,055.

 

The gap is closing!

[SEC=UGA]

The gap is closing!

 

So the average guy loses 1.5% and the big guy loses 7.7%... seems progressive enough, no?

[Azazello1313]

The gap is closing!

 

and unemployment is 10% and everyone's pay is down yay for socialism

[bpwallace49]

and unemployment is 10% and everyone's pay is down yay for socialism

 

Thank God we live in a socialst country!!!

 

Oh wait . . .

[TimC]

Hey Ursa, how many poor and lazy people have ever hired you?

[yo mama]

Hey Ursa, how many poor and lazy people have ever hired you?

Trick question: he doesn't work in the South.

[TimC]

Trick question: he doesn't work in the South.

 

Suckling on Jerry Brown's teet is no way to go through life, son.

[Pope Flick]

and unemployment is 10% and everyone's pay is down yay for socialism

 

 

That's so (the really bad word)ing stupid.

[Azazello1313]

That's so (the really bad word)ing stupid.

 

[Ursa Majoris]

That's so (the really bad word)ing stupid.

+1

[yo mama]

Suckling on Jerry Brown's teet is no way to go through life, son.

Jerry Brown is the bestest! He promised that if I give him all my money there won't be any poor people anymore and Jesus can stop crying.

 

I was a little bit confused when he told me that I could be ghey but not okay if I smoke the Josh Gordon. But he just told me to shut up in Spanish.

Edited November 4, 2010 by yo mama

[Pope Flick]

 

 

[moneymakers]

The world's comin to an end and I don't even care

As long as I can have a limo and my orange hair

And it don't bother me if people think I'm funny

Cause I'm a big rock star and I'm making lots of money

Money Money money Money

 

I'm so bloody rich

I own apartment buildings and shopping centers

And I onlly know three chords

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thinking of investing in commercial real estate? This article is for new investors to explain Where to Start.

 

A lot of new investors have tried to first invest in other types of commercial properties such as office buildings or shopping centers; only to realize that the transition is just too drastic and it ends up costing them the property, all their money leaving them deep in debt, destroying their credit and it takes years for them to recover.

 

Apartment buildings are tremendously easier to purchase, maintain & put on auto-pilot simply because most of us already understand how to rent an apartment and tenants are almost always readily available.

 

The buying process for other commercial properties (like shopping centers or office buildings) is not much different however the financing is much more difficult to obtain and leasing usually requires a team of very experienced individuals to negotiate contracts with business tenants.

 

If you're a new investor with little or no cash to invest, you MUST first start out with apartment buildings. Once you own at least 2 properties with at least 50 units in each property (which should be more then enough to pay you over $10,000 a month in net passive income cash flow) you can then branch out to other areas of commercial real estate.

 

After you own a few apartment buildings and have those properties generating you enough monthly cash flow; THEN you can absorb any vacancies that might come from not being able to rent out space in your office building, warehouse or shopping center.

 

Apartments are where just about all successful commercial real estate investors started out, so why try and fight the odds. Apartments are the fastest, easiest and safest way to create monthly income and massive profits.

 

While it is technically possible to have your first deal be a warehouse, shopping center or office building... the statistics show that it almost never happens.

 

Most investors who first try to jump to other commercial properties before they own a couple of apartment buildings, inevitably fail and quit this business never to return...

 

That's why I teach boot camps training seminars which focus on how to buy apartment buildings with no money at all. While I do teach about all types of commercial real estate, I focus on apartment buildings because the process with apartments is much faster and easier then it is with other types of commercial real estate.

 

If you want to succeed, your first commercial property must be an apartment building. This is the fastest and easiest way to create a steady stream of monthly Passive Income each and every month for the Rest of your Life

[Ursa Majoris]

So the average guy loses 1.5% and the big guy loses 7.7%... seems progressive enough, no?

Lemme see......do I want to survive on 98.5% of $39,653 or 92.3% of $90,468,000?

 

Decisions, decisions.......

[TimC]

Jerry Brown is the bestest! He promised that if I give him all my money there won't be any poor people anymore and Jesus can stop crying.

 

I was a little bit confused when he told me that I could be ghey but not okay if I smoke the Josh Gordon. But he just told me to shut up in Spanish.

 

It's all good...drink til you puke, go trillions in debt, let Tom Cruise run around without a chaperone....but if you smoke Josh Gordon, you will pay.

[gbpfan1231]

Lemme see......do I want to survive on 98.5% of $39,653 or 92.3% of $90,468,000?

 

Decisions, decisions.......

Yea but the person who makes 90,468,000 went to college (probably) and works his butt off. The person who makes 39,653 has probably been faking a back injury for years and makes 3,304 per month from the govt.

[Pope Flick]

It's all good...drink til you puke, go trillions in debt, let Tom Cruise run around without a chaperone....mellow out or you will pay! /biafra

 

 

Fixed.

[Ursa Majoris]

Yea but the person who makes 90,468,000 went to college (probably) and works his butt off. The person who makes 39,653 has probably been faking a back injury for years and makes 3,304 per month from the govt.

Now we know what the differing rates of decrease are, I wonder what the differing rates of increase were?

Edited November 4, 2010 by Ursa Majoris

[redrumjuice]

I wonder what the differing rates of increase were?

 

I would say it's none of your business and you shouldn't care. Mind your own business, and stay out of mine.

[Jimmy Neutron]

What drives the average wage down, unemployment? People losing their jobs, then taking lower paying jobs? I see this idea tossed around all the time but don't know where those statistics come from.

[gbpfan1231]

Now we know what the differing rates of decrease are, I wonder what the differing rates of increase were?

OK Ursa and the lefties - I really don't get why you guys think that people who are rich are the evil ones and that is the main cause of this widening gap. let's look at a real example here...

 

My boss started a company from nothing and has since sold out to a large global company - my boss probably made between 8-10 million. I have a co-worker who has a husband that was laid of over a year ago and has CHOOSES to stay unemployed because of the unemployment benefits he gets versus working at a job he thinks is below him. Just take these two people and you have this HUGE gap that you people are whining about.

 

Can you please explain to me what makes my boss evil and explain how he is a bigger cause of this so called gap issue? I would tend to think the coworker's husband is the bigger cause.

[Ursa Majoris]

OK Ursa and the lefties - I really don't get why you guys think that people who are rich are the evil ones and that is the main cause of this widening gap. let's look at a real example here...

 

My boss started a company from nothing and has since sold out to a large global company - my boss probably made between 8-10 million. I have a co-worker who has a husband that was laid of over a year ago and has CHOOSES to stay unemployed because of the unemployment benefits he gets versus working at a job he thinks is below him. Just take these two people and you have this HUGE gap that you people are whining about.

 

Can you please explain to me what makes my boss evil and explain how he is a bigger cause of this so called gap issue? I would tend to think the coworker's husband is the bigger cause.

Please find me a post from anywhere in my seven years here that has me saying "evil rich".

 

TIA.