CALIFORNIA BUSINESS MINUTE
Income Gap
10-01-09
Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.
According to the US Census Bureau, the recession has hit the middle income
and poorest income families the most.
The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans — those making more than $138,000 each
year — earned 11.4 times the roughly $12,000 made by those living near or below
the poverty line in 2008, according to newly released census figures. That ratio
was an increase from 11.2 in 2007 and the previous high of 11.22 in 2003.
Analysts attributed the widening gap to the wave of layoffs in the economic
downturn that have devastated household budgets. The Census Bureau report said
while the richest Americans may be seeing reductions in executive pay, those at
the bottom of the income ladder are often unemployed and struggling to get by.
Large cities such as San Francisco had the most inequality, due largely to years
of middle-class flight to the suburbs. Up-and-coming cities with growing middle-class
populations such as Riverside were among the areas showing the least income differences
between rich and poor. As for poverty, the biggest shifts last year were increases
in metropolitan areas such as Stockton which jumped from 14.1 percent to 16.8 percent
in poverty levels.
The 2008 figures come from the Current Population Survey and the American Community
Survey, which gathers information from 3 million households.
I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.
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