Press Releases | Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy (PREE)

News from EPI › Whites more upwardly mobile than blacks

Press Releases • December 9, 2010

For Immediate Release: Thursday, December 9th, 2010
Contact: Phoebe Silag or Karen Conner, news@epi.org 202-775-8810

In today’s Snapshot from the forthcoming State of Working America website, a graph shows the percent of children in each income group – from the bottom 20% to the top 20% –  who remained in or moved into  the bottom 20% as adults. In addition to showing limited upward mobility, the graph shows significant backsliding by African American children. Among those who were raised in the middle-income group, some 45% of African American children moved to the poorest group as adults, compared with 16% of white children.

EPI’s latest edition of The State of Working America (SWA) will be published online in January.

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