What is the average salary of an american?

Major League Baseball has instead implemented the so-called luxury tax, an arrangement by which teams whose aggregate payroll exceeds a certain figure (annually revised) must pay into a pool designed to help the less affluent teams pay higher salaries. However, critics point out that the luxury tax has had little effect on maintaining competitive balance and on overspending by affluent teams. For the 2004 season, only the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Anaheim Angels paid any luxury tax; such teams had superstar players whose yearly salary was close to the entire payroll of weaker clubs. Despite this fact, teams have been able to compete with low payrolls. The Florida Marlins contended for a playoff spot in 2006 with a payroll less than what Yankees 3rd Baseman Alex Rodriguez was paid and the Oakland Athletics went to the ALCS in the same season despite a low payroll. Meanwhile, the New York Yankees have not won a World Series in 6 straight seasons and both the Red Sox and Angels missed the playoffs in 2006. Due to opposition of a powerful MLB union and because the Yankees and Red Sox refused to side with the majority of MLB owners, the implementation of a salary cap is unlikely at the moment. Although some saw the success of NHL owners in their 2004-05 lockout as an opportunity for MLB to reform its collective bargaining agreement, baseball owners and players have apparently agreed to a new five-year deal (as of October 2006) that is highly unlikely to have included a salary cap.