There is a large and growing economic divide among America’s 32.6 million working families,2 with whites and Asians at the top and other racial/ethnic groups falling behind. In 2013, working families headed by racial/ethnic minorities were twice as likely to be poor or low-income (47 percent) compared with non-Hispanic whites (23 percent)—a gap that has […]
The Federal Reserve Board’s Recent Figures on the Outrageous Unequal Distribution of Wealth
The wealthiest 1% held 23.3% of the nation’s total wealth in 1989. That amount grew to 31.1% as of the first quarter of 2019. The share of the wealthiest 10% that includes the top 1% went from 60.8% to 70.1% meaning that over 80% of the increase in the share of the top 10%’s net […]
WHAT ARE THE TRENDS SLOWING WAGE GROWTH AND FUELING INCOME INEQUALITY?
While there has been positive news about recent wage growth, looking back over the last 40 years reveals a different story for the average worker. Adjusting for inflation, wages (as measured by average hourly earnings reported monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) were only around 11 percent higher in 2018 than they were in […]
Social Security 2100—A Path to Protecting America’s Elderly Communities
For millions of workers, Social Security is all they have to keep them from destitution in old age. Even with Social Security’s guaranteed benefits, they struggle to make ends meet. Fortunately, Congress can easily strengthen retirement security by expanding Social Security. Congressman John Larson (D-CT) has a bill to do just that: The Social Security […]