WASHINGTON — The rich are still getting richer, and the poor are still getting poorer, federal data released Thursday suggests. Accounting for taxes, though, everyone’s getting poorer, especially the rich.

The average American household’s income declined for a second year in a row, the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show, down 0.9 percent to $64,432. The wealthiest fifth of Americans were an exception, as their incomes increased by 0.9 percent. Among the poorest fifth, by contrast, incomes declined by 3.5 percent.

Taking taxes into account, the rich were much worse off. Income after taxes declined 8.1 percent in that wealthiest group, compared to just 1.8 percent among the poorest.

These figures are contained in the bureau’s midyear report on consumer spending, including survey results from the second half of 2013 and the first half of last year. Combined with Friday’s data showing that more discouraged workers left the labor force and wages increased only slightly in March, the numbers are a reminder that the economic recovery has yet to help most working Americans in a meaningful way.

The wealthiest paid nearly twice as much in taxes, possibly a result of payroll, dividends and capital gains tax increases at the beginning of 2013.

The contrast between incomes before and after taxes shows how policies such as income taxes and Medicare divvy up money among rich and poor at a time when the economy itself has become steadily more unequal. As Forbes’ Scott Winship and others have argued, income is much more equally distributed now than it would be without these interventions by government.

Even taking them into account, inequality has increased, and the Congressional Budget Office gives a couple of a reasons. For one thing, as the workforce ages, more and more government spending goes toward maintaining the incomes of middle-class retirees rather than helping out the poor. For another, taxes on the wealthy have been reduced, too.

In any case, if tax refunds and Social Security put more money in Americans’ pockets, the cost of health insurance and housing limit how much of it they can spend.

While the bureau reported that Americans are spending more, the main reason was an increase in spending on health insurance.