Income Inequality Is At The Highest Level In American History [View all]

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Income Inequality Is At The Highest Level In American History

BY BRYCE COVERT at Think Progress

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/07/01/3794970/income-inequality-2015/

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According to a new analysis by economist Emmanuel Saez, Americans in the bottom 99 percent of the country’s income distribution saw their take home pay rise 3.9 percent in 2015 over 2014’s levels, adjusted for inflation, the best increase they’ve seen in 17 years. But the top 1 percent of the country far outpaced them: the wealthy’s income grew by 7.7 percent last year, reaching a new high.

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But the rich are doing great. The incomes of the 1 percent grew 37 percent between 2009 and 2015. They captured more than half of all the income growth in the country over that period, leaving just 48 percent to spread out among the bottom 99 percent of families.

The top 10 percent of American earners took home more than half of all income last year, the highest share ever except for 2012.

And in fact, income inequality is now at the highest level the country has ever recorded in its entire history. While most data only goes back to the turn of the 20th century, economists Peter Lindert and Jeffrey WIlliamson used tax records, directories, and historical accounts to go back even further. They found that in the country’s earliest post-colonial history, inequality was quite low and much lower than countries across the Atlantic.


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