Income Inequality Increases Between The Rich And Poor According To Recent Data

The gap that exists between U.S. households which are richest and those that are poorest is now the most it has been in the last five decades. This is in spite of the median income of the United States had hit a new high in the year 2018.

The income inequality in the United States was majorly higher in the year 2018 than it was in the year 2017 according to the federal agency in the latest report of American Community Survey. The previous time when such a metric change had been deemed significant statistically was when it had grown from the year 2012 to 2013.

While there is no change in income inequality in the last year in a lot of states the gap in income had grown wider in many states like California, Kansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Arkansas, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Virginia and Texas.

This disparity has grown despite a surge in the national economy that has seen low levels of unemployment and over a decade of consecutive growth in the GDP.

According to experts the most distressing thing about the report is that it exposes the inability of the expansion that is happening in the current economy to lessen the inequality in the country.

Experts have said that this inequality occurring in spite of the growing economy can be attributed to a few factors like declining organized labor and also the competition that has arisen from abroad when it comes to the jobs.  They also cite the policies of taxation that are favoring business and families that have higher incomes.

The inequality in income is being measured through Gini index which measures the difference between the income of richest and poor.