Despite the pandemic, wage growth held firm for most U.S. workers, with little effect on inequality
Earnings overall have held steady through the pandemic in part because lower-wage workers experienced steeper job losses.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Earnings overall have held steady through the pandemic in part because lower-wage workers experienced steeper job losses.
Over the past 50 years, the highest-earning 20% of U.S. households have steadily brought in a larger share of the country’s total income.
Income inequality nearly doubled among Asians in the U.S. from 1970 to 2016. Sizable income gaps persist across racial and ethnic groups, a new study finds.
The gap in the standard of living between Asians near the top and the bottom of the income ladder nearly doubled from 1970 to
2016. Amid rising inequality overall, Asians displaced blacks as the most economically divided major U.S. racial or ethnic group.
Despite some ups and downs over the past several decades, today’s real average wage in the U.S. has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago. And most of what wage gains there have been have flowed to the highest-paid tier of workers.
While the size of the U.S. middle class remained relatively stable between 2002 and 2016, financial gains for middle-income Americans were modest compared with those of higher-income households.
In the U.S., the racial and ethnic wealth gap has evolved differently for families at different income levels since the Great Recession.
The American middle class is smaller than middle classes across Western Europe, but its income is higher.
The American middle class is losing ground in metropolitan areas across the country, affecting communities from Boston to Seattle and from Dallas to Milwaukee.
Just what is “economic inequality”? Depends on whom you ask.
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