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In North Carolina, the average top 1 percent earner takes home more than 20 times what the average earner in the bottom 99 percent earns, according to new research published by the Economic Policy Institute. The average income for the top 1 percent in North Carolina was $903,000 while the average income for the bottom 99 percent was $44,000. That 20.6 top-to-bottom income ratio is below the averages for both the nation and the South, but – like everywhere else in the country – has risen sharply in the past few decades and has again surpassed pre-Recession levels. (whole story)
WUNC July 23, 2018 -
The national nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute ranks Indiana 39th among states for income inequality. The institute reports the average top 1 percent in Indiana earns 17.3 times more than the average income of the rest of the state. “What’s really significant about that is that it reflects not just a disparity between what the average Hoosier household is taking home, but it is also reflecting policy changes that’s widening that gap,” says Indiana Institute for Working Families senior policy analyst Andrew Bradley. (whole story)
WFYI July 23, 2018 -
A new report shows the average income of the top one percent of Kentuckians is more than 18.4 times greater than the average income of state residents. Income for the wealthiest one percent of earners in Kentucky was more than $719,012 in 2015, compared to an average income of almost $39,990 for all other Kentuckians. The report from the Economic Policy Institute shows from 2009 to 2015 the top one percent income grew 23.2 percent while everyone else’s income grew only 7.2 percent. Ashley Spalding is a senior policy analyst with the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. (whole story)
WKMS July 23, 2018 -
The nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute last week released an updated report on income equality levels across the country, in all states, all counties and 916 metropolitan areas. The findings should prompt more immediate policy action, especially regarding such concerns as affordable housing. Income inequity has risen in every state and has grown even through the Great Recession recovery. Researchers titled the report “The new gilded age,” using demographic and economic information which shows overall in the U.S. the top 1 percent took home 22.03 percent of all income in 2015; “just below the 1928 peak of 23.9, which preceded the Great Depression.” (whole story)
Grand Rapids Business Journal July 23, 2018 -
If you are looking to be in the top 1 percent income-wise in Luzerne County, you need to earn at least $270,058 a year, according to a new report. That may sound like a lot, but there are 31 counties in Pennsylvania where you would need to boost your income by a lot more. In fact if you move to Montgomery County, you would have to make nearly three times as much — $879,563 — to be a one-percenter. The numbers come from the Economic Policy Institute, an organization that declares its mission is “to seek solutions that ensure broadly shared prosperity and opportunity.” Dubbed “The New Gilded Age,” the report looks at income for the top 1 percent and bottom 99 percent in each state and in most counties nationwide. (whole story)
Wilkes-Barre Times Leader July 23, 2018 -
The gap is getting wider, and Connecticut is a focal point of the chasm. According to a report by the Economic Policy Institute issued this week, the incomes of the top 1 percent of earners grew faster than that of the bottom 99 percent in 43 states. Connecticut had the third-largest gap, trailing New York and Florida. (whole story)
Danbury News Times July 23, 2018 -
In Beaver County, the average income of the bottom 99 percent was $44,121, compared to $454,000 for the top 1 percent. The average annual income for the top 1 percent in Pennsylvania is more than 20 times that of the other 99 percent, while in Beaver County the top earners make 10 times the average income of the rest of the county, a new report states. (whole story)
The Times July 23, 2018 -
Before you dig out your flapper dresses and suspenders, the odds are this is a party you can’t afford to attend. A new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that the level of income inequality in the United States and North Carolina has increased over the past several years to a point where we are now at or above the economic divide that helped to propel the world in the worst economic collapse in modern history. (whole story)
The Progressive Pulse July 23, 2018 -
The average annual income in 2015 of a household in the top 1% of U.S. earners was $1.32 million, more than 26-times the average of the bottom 99%, where the average was just over $50,000. In order even to qualify as a one-percenter, a U.S. household needed an annual income of $421,926. The top 1% of households took home 22% of all U.S. income, a larger portion than at any time since 1928. In the most unequal states — New York, Florida and Connecticut — the top 1% earned more than 35 times the average of the other 99%. In the two-year period between a similar report in 2013 and the new report, the difference between incomes of the top 1% and the bottom 99% increased from 25.3 times to 26.3 times.
24/7 Wall St. July 23, 2018 -
The gap between the rich and everyone else is only getting wider. That’s according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which used the latest available data to analyze how the top 1 percent and the bottom 99 percent across the U.S. have fared between 1917 and 2015. “In 2015, the top 1 percent of families in the U.S. earned, on average, 26.3 times as much income as the bottom 99 percent — an increase from 2013, when they earned 25.3 times as much,” the EPI reports. And in some areas, the gap is even more severe. In the Jackson, Wyoming, metro area, home to the luxurious Jackson Hole ski resort, the top 1 percent earns an astonishing 132 times more than the bottom 99 percent. (whole story)
CNBC July 20, 2018