Congressional Member’s Report Card

Congressional Member’s Report Card

WHAT? Democracy. WHO? Decides.

Income & Wealth Inequality

Evidence & Facts

INCOME INEQUALITY IN U.S

  • Income includes the revenue streams from wages, salaries, interest on a savings account, dividends from shares of stock, rent, and profits from selling something for more than you paid for it. Unlike wealth statistics, income figures do not include the value of homes, stock, or other possessions.
  • Income inequality refers to the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among a population.
  • The U.S. income divide has not always been as vast as it is today. In response to the staggering inequality of the Gilded Age in the early 1900s, social movements and progressive policymakers fought successfully to level down the top through fair taxation and level up the bottom through increased unionization and other reforms. But beginning in the 1970s, these levelers started to erode and the country returned to extreme levels of inequality.
  • Income disparities are now so pronounced that America’s richest 1 percent of households averaged more than 84 times as much income as the bottom 20 percent in 2019, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
  • www.inequality.org

AVERAGE INCOME FOR TOP 1%

RICHEST 0.1% INCOME

Engage to Change
2024

"OUR STATUS QUO"

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