Monday, October 05, 2009
Many experts expected the disparity between rich and poor to have shrunk last year, as income levels for all Americans declined because of the Great Recession. But that didn’t happen, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Although earnings among the wealthy did decline in 2008, those for middle-income and poor Americans fell even farther, causing the gap between the top and bottom levels of society to widen.
The top 10% of Americans ($138,000 and above annually) made 11.4 times more than those living below the poverty line ($12,000) in 2008, surpassing the previous high of 11.2 in 2003. The percentage of poor Americans increased to more than 13%, an 11-year high. Mississippi had the highest poverty rate: 21.2%. Median income fell from $52,163 to $50,303, which was the lowest level since 1997.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Recession Pushes Income Gap Between Rich, Poor to Record (by Hope Yen, Associated Press)
New Income Inequality Data: Surprising and Frightening (by Bruce Judson, Huffington Post)
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