3. Income Inequality within the US
Percentage of Total Income Earned by the Top 10 Percent
United States (1970-2009)
50.0
47.1
44.3
Percentage
41.4
38.6
35.7
32.9
30.0
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Year
4.
5. CEO and Worker Pay
CEOs' pay as a multiple of the average worker's pay, 1960-2007
Source: Domhoff 2011
6. Wealth Concentration in the United States
Distribution of net worth and financial wealth
Top 1 percent Next 19 percent Bottom 80 percent
1983 33.8% 47.5% 18.7%
1989 37.4% 46.2% 16.5%
1992 37.2% 46.6% 16.2%
1995 38.5% 45.4% 16.1%
1998 38.1% 45.3% 16.6%
2001 33.4% 51.0% 15.6%
2004 34.3% 50.3% 15.3%
2007 34.6% 50.5% 15.0%
Source: Domhoff 2011
7. Financial Wealth in the United States
Top 1 percent Next 19 percent Bottom 80 percent
1983 42.9% 48.4% 8.7%
1989 46.9% 46.5% 6.6%
1992 45.6% 46.7% 7.7%
1995 47.2% 45.9% 7.0%
1998 47.3% 43.6% 9.1%
2001 39.7% 51.5% 8.7%
2004 42.2% 50.3% 7.5%
2007 42.7% 50.3% 7.0%
Source: Domhoff 2011
9. Every group except the top 1% had a smaller share of income in 2007 than they did in
1979, or just an equal share in the case of the 81st-99th percentile group. That means
the gains in the top quintile are all concentrated in the top 1%.
37. Gini Coefficient
• Gini Coefficient
is a common
measurement of
income inequality,
ranging from 0 to 1,
where 0 indicates
equal distribution,
and 1 indicates
complete inequality
40. Kuznets Curve Refuted
Rising Inequality within high income nations, and
falling inequality within low income nations
41. Inequality trends in rich nations
Gini coefficient
Country percentage change
(1990-2006)
Inequality in the US and Austria -10.7
UK has increased Belgium 20.7
dramatically since the Denmark -3.4
Finland 20.0
1970s, France -5.9
And rising inequality is Germany 5.1
not offset by greater Greece 2.1
Ireland -2.4
upward mobility and Italy 5.6
change between Luxembourg 12.1
economic categories. Netherlands -2.3
But, this does not Norway 10.8
Portugal 5.5
reflect a more general Spain 2.3
trend... Sweden 3.5
Switzerland -10.7
UK 2.7
European Union 0.0
Notas del editor
How is ‘happiness’ measured? Life satisfaction is typically measured with the following question:All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?
The straight line indicates perfect equality in the distribution of income: e.g. 10% of the population receives 10% of the income, 20% of the population receives 20% of the income, etc. The area between the straight line representing perfect equality and the curved line (called a Lorenz curve) representing actual income distribution is known as the Gini coefficient. The farther the line is from the straight line (45 degree angle), the larger the income inequality, and thus, the larger the Gini coefficient.
There are three data points, representing low income, middle income, and high income countries, in the years 1970 and 1990. We see that the distance between the three groups has remained relatively stable. We also see that, inequality within low income and middle income nations has declined slightly, whereas in high income nations, economic growth has exacerbated economic inequalities. It is difficult to assess the Kuznets curve hypothesis with this data. The first two data points (low and middle income countries) might be seen as confirming the Kuznets curve, so long as we assume that prior industrialization has increased inequality there, over and above what it used to be, which is questionable. The trend for the high income nations, however, is not consistent with the Kuznets Curve. The overall pattern for each year does resemble a Kuznets Curve, because inequality is higher for middle income nations