Family Incomes Rise After Lull

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Surge to post-recession
high is fueled by lowearning households,
broader jobs growth
Business & Finance
U
come—the level at which half
are above and half are below—
rose 5.2%, or $2,798, to $56,516,
from a year earlier, after adjusting for inflation, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.
The increase was the largest
annual gain recorded since the
yearly survey of incomes began
in 1967, though it didn’t fully
close the gap left by last decade’s recessions. Median
household incomes stood 1.6%
shy of the 2007 level, before the
last recession took its toll, and
2.4% below the all-time high
reached in 1999.
The figures show how several
years of robust employment
BY NICK TIMIRAOS
AND JANET ADAMY
.S. household income
surged last year amid
sustained job growth, following a long stretch of stagnant
and declining earnings. A1
A surge in U.S. incomes last
year delivered the first significant raise for the typical family
after seven years of stagnant
and declining earnings, the result of sustained job growth finally lifting a broad swath of
American households.
The median household in-
 Wells Fargo’s CEO defended the bank and the efforts it had taken to stop allegedly illegal sales practices
across the company. A1, C1
 EpiPen maker Mylan
had the second-highest executive pay among all U.S.
drug and biotech firms
over the past five years. A1
growth, including 2.4 million
people who gained full-time
work last year, helped regain
ground lost after an especially
wrenching downturn, particularly for lower-income households. Longer hours, higher
wages and lower inflation also
have contributed to the improvement.
One question now is whether
a sustained upturn is under way,
or whether these gains are likely
to peter out as the economy
nears full employment, especially given a continuing slide in
measured worker productivity.
“It has been a long slog from
the depths of the Great Reces-
sion, but things are finally
starting to improve for many
American households,” said
Chris Christopher Jr., an economist at IHS Global Insight, a research firm.
At the current pace, median
household incomes could surpass their 2007 level next year,
according to forecasts by IHS,
concluding a lost decade for
workers.
The official poverty rate in
2015 was 13.5%, down from
14.8% in 2014, the Census rePlease see INCOME page A2
Earning More
Inflation-adjusted median
household income
$60,000
55,000
50,000
40,000
1970 ’80
 Heard: Rising incomes energize
consumer spending.............. C12
Source: Census Bureau
As public and congressional
pressure mounted on Wells
Fargo & Co. executives, its top
two bankers had an explanation
Tuesday for allegedly illegal
sales practices across the company: It was employees’ fault.
Chief Executive John Stumpf
defended the firm and the efforts it had taken to stop the
behavior, which included opening accounts for customers
without permission. “There was
no incentive to do bad things,”
Mr. Stumpf said in an interview
with The Wall Street Journal.
He called the conduct that led
to last week’s settlement with
federal and local authorities
“not acceptable,” adding that
the bank doesn’t “want one
dime of income that’s not
earned properly.”
At the same time, the San
Francisco bank said it would
soon eliminate the practices at
the center of the controversy:
branch-level sales goals that encouraged employees to crosssell products to customers. Last
week, Wells Fargo paid a $185
million fine to regulators, including the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, after
findings that many accounts
were falsified or forced on unsuspecting customers.
Many of the employees felt
pressure to sell customers multiple products or services—for
example, home-equity lines to
Please see WELLS page A2
 Russian hackers stole
Olympic athletes’ medical
records, the World AntiDoping Agency said. A10
 Iran threatened two
American surveillance planes
as they flew over the Strait
of Hormuz, the U.S. said. A8
 Philippine leader Duterte
is seeking arms from Russia
and China, signaling a shift
from reliance on the U.S. A11
 The administration plans
to raise the number of refugees admitted to the U.S. to
110,000 in fiscal 2017. A2
 Turkey asked the U.S.
to detain a Muslim cleric
whom Erdogan accuses of
masterminding a coup. A9
Innovations
In Energy
The likelihood of a U.S.
carbon tax or cap-and-trade
program is greater than ever.
Journal Report, R1-6
Journal Report.. R1-6
Opinion.............. A13-15
Property Report C6-8
Sports.......................... D6
U.S. News............. A2-3
Weather..................... B6
World News...... A8-11
EVAN VUCCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
 Time Inc. named Battista
CEO, continuing a shuffle of
the top ranks at the firm. B1
 Obama accused Trump
of adopting Putin as a role
model, in the president’s
first solo appearance on
the campaign trail. A4
 Trump proposed new
subsidies for child care, as
well as paid maternity leave for
workers who don’t have it. A6
’10
BY EMILY GLAZER
AND CHRISTINA REXRODE
 The Atlanta Fed’s Lockhart, considered by many a
bellwether central-bank voice,
will step down in February. A2
 Syria’s regime is pressing
a systematic effort to alter
the country’s demographics
and tighten Assad’s grip on
power, U.N. officials and
opposition figures said. A8
 Israel hit artillery positions in Syria in what it said
was a response to a shell that
struck the Golan Heights. A8
’00
Wells Boss
Says Staff
At Fault
For Scams
 Samsung is facing growing consumer confusion and
anger as it grapples with a
recall of new smartphones. B1
World-Wide
’90
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
 Three ships in the charter
fleet of troubled Hanjin are
being sold in what appears
to be the start of a fire sale. B1
 General Motors said its
Bolt electric car will travel 238
miles on a single charge. B3
2015
$56,516
+5.2% since 2014
45,000
 Stocks and bonds slid,
raising concerns that volatility could force sales by some
hedge funds. The Dow fell
258.32 to 18066.75. C1, C4
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, speaking at a rally Tuesday in Clive, Iowa, has changed the tone of his campaign.
TRUMP, TEAM RECAST HIS IMAGE
Nominee shifts from raucous rallies to ‘presidential’ appearances but still sometimes ad libs
BY MONICA LANGLEY
Donald Trump installed his third
leadership team at a campaign low
point on Aug. 16. The next day, his new
managers at a meeting in his Trump
Tower office in New York suggested
the Republican Party nominee visit
residents suffering in the Louisiana
floods.
Mr. Trump didn’t like the idea.
Wouldn’t he look like he was pandering? he asked, according to advisers.
And besides, he added, Louisiana
wasn’t a swing state.
Newly installed campaign chief exec-
utive Stephen Bannon and campaign
manager Kellyanne Conway told their
new boss, basically, trust us. Mr.
Trump needed to move away from a
preoccupation with rallies and wall-towall TV interviews toward “moments,”
in the new managers’ parlance, that
showed him in TV newscasts as presidential, with a caring side.
The approach would give Mr. Trump
a break from the media replaying unattractive off-script comments and offputting tweets—including a few viewed
as racist—that were helping widen the
polling lead of Democratic presidential
nominee Hillary Clinton, they said. Be-
This Israeli City Has Gone to the
Dogs—Just Ask Its Hounded Cats
i
i
i
Tel Aviv’s 30,000 pooches get lavish
perks while stray felines tell another tale
BY RORY JONES
AND NANCY SHEKTER-PORAT
JAFFA, Israel—With the
scoop of a net, stray-cat
catcher Eyal Getenyo snared a
black cat, hauled the catch to a
nearby van and tried to lure a
kitten into a cage with a can of
Fancy Feast. He zoomed away
with 11 strays.
“If we waited a few more
moments, we could have got
three or four more,” says Mr.
Getenyo, who interrupted the
morning walk of a French bulldog. It watched the black cat’s
capture and then strolled away
>
s Copyright 2016 Dow Jones &
Company. All Rights Reserved
YEN 102.56
Family Incomes Rise After Lull
What’s
News
CONTENTS
Business News. B2-4
Crossword................. B6
Election 2016.... A4-6
Global Finance........ C3
Heard on Street.. C12
In the Markets....... C4
EURO $1.1221
Stray cat
with its nose in the air.
It’s hard to be a cat in Tel
Aviv-Jaffa, a city on Israel’s
Mediterranean coast which
considers itself the most dogfriendly place on the planet.
With a population of about
432,000, the area is home to
one dog per 14 residents, and
the pooches have their own local beaches and parks.
In July, the municipality invited dogs and their owners to
a rooftop screening of the animated talking-animals movie,
“The Secret Life of Pets.” Last
month’s Kelaviv dog festival, a
play on the word “kelev,” or
“dog” in Hebrew, showcased local canine fashion designers
and pet technology developers.
Tel Aviv-Jaffa now plans to
launch an app called DigiDog
that will alert owners to dogfriendly events and offer discounts at dog-friendly stores.
Please see CATS page A6
sides, President Barack Obama was
away playing golf on an island vacation.
Mr. Trump went to Louisiana the
next day, Aug. 18, accompanied by running mate Mike Pence. The trip turned
out successfully in Mr. Trump’s view,
and cinched his ties with Mr. Bannon
and Ms. Conway, shifting his campaign’s focus toward such events as a
trip to a Detroit inner-city church, the
meeting with Mexico’s president and a
planned visit Wednesday to Flint,
Mich., to speak with families hurt by
Please see IMAGE page A6
 CEO John Stumpf’s crisis
cameo.............................................. C1
 Election 2016.............................................. A4, A6
Selloff for
Longest
Treasurys
Yield of 30-year U.S. Treasury
3.25%
Jan. 1
Worries about global
economy fuel new-year
rush to U.S. Treasurys
3.00
Tuesday
2.47% LONG BONDS: The
June 23
U.K. votes to leave
European Union
2.75
July 8
Yields reach
new low on
foreign demand
2.50
2.25
2.00
1.75
Jan.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
longest-term U.S.
Treasury bonds are
some of the biggest
victims of the
government-debt
selloff in recent
days. The yield on
the 30-year bond is
up 0.23 percentage
point in last four
trading days. C1
Source: WSJ Market Data Group
EpiPen Maker Dispenses Outsize Pay
BY MARK MAREMONT
The drugmaker buffeted by
the furor over hefty price increases on its lifesaving
EpiPen had the second-highest executive compensation
among all U.S. drug and biotech firms over the past five
years, paying its top five
managers a total of nearly
$300 million, according to a
Wall Street Journal analysis.
The big pay packages are
unusual because of Mylan NV’s
relatively small size in the U.S.
drug industry, where it is No.
11 by revenue and No. 16 by
market capitalization.
Companies generally set
their executive pay targets relative to peers in their own industry, with larger companies
typically offering more gener-
ous pay than smaller ones. Pay
also varies somewhat with corporate performance.
Mylan’s combined total of
$292.1 million in pay for its
top five executives over the
five years ended last December
outpaced that at industry rivals several times its size, according to the analysis, including Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer
Please see MYLAN page A10