In other words: the economy is great, if you're rich. Otherwise, not so much.

From the Washington Post:

Pay is rising more than twice as fast for the top fifth of wage earners as it is for all others, and the pace of gains at the high end is quickening, according to economists' analyses of government income data through September.

Meanwhile, the top 20 percent of households, ranked by income from all sources and earning $127,000 or more as of 2003, accounts for more than 40 percent of all consumer spending, according to Labor Department figures.

If the highest-paid workers continue to score ever-bigger salaries, bonuses and commissions, in other words, the economy should grow solidly even if the job market for other employees improves only very slowly for a while, according to economists who have studied the data, including some at the Federal Reserve. Fast wage growth at the top, the data indicate, has more than offset weaker gains at the bottom, so that total U.S. consumer purchasing power has risen strongly.