French bottom 50% overtook US bottom 50% before taxes

Whereas in 1980 the U.S. bottom 50% earned about 10% more than France's bottom 50%, French bottom-50% incomes have since grown at roughly the same rate as macroeconomic growth while U.S. incomes stagnated, so the French bottom half now has more market income than the American bottom half—a divergence visible before any taxes and transfers, ruling out the French welfare state as the cause.