Historical income taxation in terms of hours of work per year

[brian0918]

Does anyone have the sets of data necessary to graph the number of hours one has to work per year (assuming a 40-hour week) to pay their federal income taxes for various (inflation-adjusted) incomes? For example, if you earned $40,000 in 2007, about 334 hours of your labor went toward federal income taxes; this number of course is larger once you include state and local taxes. That income is equivalent to $33,220 in 2000, which would have meant about 370 hours going toward federal income taxes in 2000.

What I'm trying to make is a graph that clearly shows the increase/decrease over time in the number of hours per year I'm putting towards income taxes. In other words, cut out the middle man (money) and re-frame taxation in terms of actual labor.

Edited February 26, 2008 by brian0918

[Galileo Blogs]

Take a look at this, "Tax Freedom Day."

It shows the day when the average American stops working for the government, and starts working for himself. Right now, that day is April 30. You can do the math on how many man-hours of labor that represents.

[KevinDW78]

I have always wanted to know the figures of how much an average person is taxed today (income, sales, investments, etc) versus how much the average colonialist was taxed by Great Britian in 1776 (stamp tax, sugar tax, tea tax, etc)

[brian0918]

Take a look at this, "Tax Freedom Day."

It shows the day when the average American stops working for the government, and starts working for himself. Right now, that day is April 30. You can do the math on how many man-hours of labor that represents.

I need to update my resume to include my work for the government from January to April 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003....

Actually, it's interesting that if you voluntarily work for the government, you can put it on your resume, but if the government forces you to work at gunpoint in exchange for survival, you can't.