Giving Compass' Take:

• Austin Clemens uses eight graphs to show the growth of economic inequality in the United States. 

• How can funders use this information to inform efforts to address inequality? 

• Read a roadmap for addressing economic inequality. 

Rising economic inequality over the past 40 years has redrawn the U.S. wealth and income landscape, shifting many of the gains of prosperity into the hands of a smaller and smaller group of people and marginalizing members of vulnerable communities. This transformation is in turn reducing income mobility and opening gulfs in educational achievement and health outcomes between different levels of income. The eight graphs in the three sections below visually illustrate these findings.

The first graphic tracks the share of all earned income accrued by the top 1 percent of earners, along with the next 9 percent, the upper 40 percent (from the 50th percentile to the 90th) and the bottom 50 percent. The share of income controlled by the top 10 percent bottomed out in the 1970s but has reached new highs—the top 10 percent of all income earners now control around 38 percent of national income.

Read the full article about economic inequality by Austin Clemens at Equitable Growth.