The average annual salary in 1970 was $6,186.24, according to the Social Security Administration. This was up considerably from 1960, when the average annual salary was just over $4,000 a year.
Historically, the average salary in the United States goes up every year and goes up by a few thousand or more every 10 years. For example, the average annual salary in 1980 was $12,513 and $21,027 in 1990. By 2000, it went up by another $11,000 a year, bringing the average salary up to $32,154. In 2010, the average salary in the country was $41,673 a year. Between 2010 and 2014, it went up by another $5,000.
