Hoisted from Comments: How Much Do I Earn?

Larry Siegel writes in comments:

We Are the Super Rich: OK, here's my tax bill. I earned $280,419 last year and had Federal withholding of $61,402, New York state withholding of $23,527, and New York city withholding of $12,700. Social Security tax was $6,621 (plus the employer's share), and Medicare tax was $4,252. That's more than $100,000 on an income just barely above $250,000.

Now here's the punchline. I didn't pay nearly enough. Because part of my income was from a bonus, which is withheld at 25% instead of 35%, I have to cough up a lot more by October 15. At least $10,000 more. I'm working on the math right now. And this analysis doesn't include sales tax, property tax, or any other tax.

I usually enjoy Brad DeLong's work although we are both professional economists on opposite sides of the political fence. So I won't assume he's mendacious, just ignorant of the basics of tax rates.

What Larry misses, I think, is that at least in the rarified research-university professoriate what numbers flow through to our tax returns grossly understate how much we earn.

Put it this way: what with the furloughs, etc., I think that the flow-through from my Berkeley salary to my 1040 this year may be in the five figures--$96K.

But that's not a good measure of what I earn.

Given that I am now in my 50s, the (generous) employer health contribution is now worth at least $12K to us. Add in $30K in 403b(7) and 527 tax-shielded retirement contributions. Add in what looks to me, at my age, like a $30K employer contribution to the defined-benefit program. And add in a mortgage subsidy that is damnably difficult to value but that I think is worth an extra $25K a year.

And Berkeley does not offer anything like the educational benefits of the Chicagos or the Stanfords.

With the exception of the possibility of a (usually much less generous) employer health contribution, almost none of these tax-shielded compensation vehicles have counterparts available on any significant scale to those households at or near the American median income of $50K a year.

So do I personally earn from Berkeley this year 1.92 times median household income? Or do I earn 3.86 times median household income? I would argue for the second...