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| Posted on April 11, 2008 |     print  e-mail |
Rich Get Richer, Poor Get Poorer in New York State, Study Finds
New York has the widest income gap between the rich and poor of all fifty states, a new report from the Fiscal Policy Institute finds. And the gap in New York City is even wider than in the state as a whole.
Released in conjunction with a national study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, the report, Pulling Apart in New York: An Analysis of Income Trends in New York State (44 pages, PDF), found that the gap between rich and poor in the state has continued to widen over the past two decades. In the late 1980s, families in the top 20 percent made almost seven times as much as those in the bottom 20 percent, while by the mid-2000s the top earners made almost nine times as much. Measured in 2005 dollars, the average income of the wealthiest New Yorkers grew from $110,000 in the late '80s to $148,000 in the mid-2000s — an increase of 35 percent — while that of families in the bottom fifth increased from $16,200 to $17,100, or 5 percent, over the same period.
According to the study's principal author, FPI senior economist Trudi Renwick, the trend of wages at the high end of the spectrum growing much faster than those at the low end is more dramatic in New York than in the rest of the country. Since the late '80s, only four states have had greater increases in top-to-bottom income inequality than New York. Yet the state's economy is among the most productive in the country.
"Income inequality is not just a fairness issue," said Renwick. "When low and middle incomes stagnate, the whole economy is affected as families are forced into debt to support themselves. And political fissures widen, making it harder for us as a society to address issues that affect us all — education, health care, immigration, and social security."
“Gap Between New York's Wealthy and Poor Is Still the Widest in the Nation.” Fiscal Policy Institute Press Release 4/09/08.
Primary Subject: Civil Society
Location(s): New York, New York City
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