Americans Now Need at Least $500,000 a Year to Enter Top 1%

(Bloomberg) -- One definition of rich is getting into the top 1%. If that’s your goal, it’s becoming harder to reach.The income needed to exit the bottom 99% of U.S. taxpayers hit $515,371 in 2017, according to Internal Revenue Service data released this week. That’s up 7.2% from a year earlier, even after adjusting for inflation.Since 2011, when Occupy Wall Street protesters rallied under the slogan “We are the 99%,” the income threshold for the top 1% is up an inf