How the Other Fifth Lives

From the New York Times:

For years now, people have been talking about the insulated world of the top 1 percent of Americans, but the top 20 percent of the income distribution is also steadily separating itself — by geography and by education as well as by income.

This self-segregation of a privileged fifth of the population is changing the American social order and the American political system, creating a self-perpetuating class at the top, which is ever more difficult to break into.

In hard numbers, the percentage of families with children living in very affluent neighborhoods more than doubled between 1970 and 2012, from 6.6 percent to 15.7 percent.

At the same time, the percentage of families with children living in traditional middle class neighborhoods with median incomes between 80 and 125 percent of the surrounding metropolitan area fell from 64.7 percent in 1970 to 40.5 percent.

Tracking Income Equity: Use of the Gini Index 2006-2014

With the ACS, income inequity can now been seen longitudinally. The main measure of income inequality available through the census is the use of the Gini Index. The Gini Index is a summary measure of income inequality. As an index, it only has a value of between 0 and 1. A value of "0" would mean that every household had the same exact income; a value of "1" would mean that income was concentrated solely in a single household.

The index does NOT speak about the absolute levels of income - in other words, it doesn't measure how much income exists in a household. It measures the relative distribution of income across all households in an area. So when one area has a higher Gini index than another, nothing can be said about the income levels between the areas. Rather, it would tell you about the distribution of incomes within both areas.

That being understood, what are the regional, state and nation Gini levels over the last decade or so?


More from Herkimer and Oneida Counties Census Data Affiliate

America's CEOs Now Make 303 Times More Than Their Workers

From Mother Jones:

"Those at the top of the income distribution, including many CEOs, are seeing a strong recovery, while the typical worker is still experiencing the detrimental effects of a stagnant labor market," the study's authors, Lawrence Mishel and Alyssa Davis, found.

The pay gap between CEOs and the typical worker has widened since 2009, with CEOs now making more than 303 times the earnings of workers in their industries. CEOs have made at least 120 times the earnings of typical workers since 1995.

Read the EPI report HERE.

Income Inequality and Life Expectancy

There’s an interesting story in The Upshot section of The New York Times this week about income inequality and life expectancy. The story highlights a study by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute that looks at the relationship between having higher income inequality in a community and the life expectancy of the people who live there.

The researchers found that those who lived in communities with higher inequality were more likely to die before age 75 than those with lower inequality.

(Via AIER)


See also: The American people are clueless: Why income inequality is so much worse than we realize

Insult to Injury: Is Income Inequality Tied to Worker Safety?

From the US Department of Labor:

The costs of workplace injuries are borne primarily by injured workers, their families, and taxpayer-supported components of the social safety net. Changes in state-based workers’ compensation insurance programs have made it increasingly difficult for injured workers to receive the full benefits to which they are entitled. Employers now provide only a small percentage (about 20%) of the overall financial cost of workplace injuries and illnesses. This cost-shift has forced injured workers, their families and taxpayers to subsidize the vast majority of the lost income and medical care costs generated by these conditions.

When employers are excused from this burden, worker safety and health often becomes less of a priority. This is especially important because preventing these injuries and illnesses in the first place would be the number one way to alleviate this type of suffering before it even begins.