WASHINGTON (NNPA)—Income inequality is rising and it affects workers in every state, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Researchers from EPI, a nonpartisan think tank focused on low- and middle-income workers, analyzed Internal Revenue Service data for all 50 states and found that not only was the income gap between the top 1 percent of earners and everyone else getting wider, but that the disparities were not just confined to financial centers in the east or technology centers on the west coast.
All workers took a hit during the Great Recession, but top earners have recovered faster than low- and middle-income earners. According to the report, the top 1 percent of earners captured all of the income gains (100 percent) in 17 states following the Great Recession.
And Blacks live disproportionately in states that experienced the greatest income inequality.
In seven of those states where the top 1 percent captured 100 percent of the income growth since the Great Recession, the share of the population that is Black is higher than the national average. Those states include Delaware (22.1 percent), Florida (16.7 percent), South Carolina (27.9 percent), North Carolina (22 percent), Louisiana (32.4 percent ), Virginia (19.7 percent) and New York (17.5 percent).
With the exception of Texas, where Blacks account for 12.4 percent of the population, the Black population is higher than the national average in states where the top 1 percent collected at least 80 percent of the income growth including Illinois, Arkansas, Michigan, New Jersey, and Maryland.
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