Current Social Issues : Income Inequality

The issue of income inequality in the United States is complicated and does not have a definite answer. Income inequality can be measured in a few different ways. The first measurement for the income inequality in a country is to look at the percentages on households and group them into income categories, called distribution by income category. The second measurement for income inequality is called distribution by quintiles or fifths. This is when you divide the total number of people, households, families into five groups called quintiles to examine the percentage of total before tax income received by each quintile. Each quintile would then be ordered by income and households in the category.

A person’s socioeconomic status is a way in which a group of people can be marginalized. Fluctuating in financial status, incorporating incongruities in the conveyance of riches, wage, and access to assets, influences everybody. Disparities in riches and personal satisfaction are expanding in the United States and internationally. Behavioral and sociology experts have the instruments important to complete and recognize methodologies that could reduce these abnormalities at both individual and societal levels. Low socioeconomic status (SES) and its corresponds, for example, lower training, neediness, and weakness, at last influence our general public overall. Everybody profits by an expanded spotlight on establishments of financial imbalances

Income Inequality is a major problem that has been going on in America for decades. Many people feel that it barely exists today, but those people are very uneducated and don’t really care about the huge problem in front of them the many people that feel that way are highly uneducated, and seem to not really care about which has been gradually increasing instead of decreasing. Unfortunately, there’s not much that can be done, only of course if the poor class of people decide to actually educate themselves and get a higher education. One says poor class, simply because that’s how they’re classified. There are five types of levels that Americans are classified as, and they are: Upper Class, Upper Middle Class, Middle Class, Working Class, Poor. The highest percentage of Americans fall in the Poor department, and it has been that way for decades, and will continue to be that way for decades to come.

Income inequality is increasingly becoming a significant concern for many countries around the world. The income difference between the highly-educated, skilled, wealthy class and the poor, low to mid-skilled workers is growing larger and larger. In fact, the incomes of the rich are increasing significantly, while the low skilled workers’ incomes have been declining (The Economist, “Wealth Without Workers”). According to The Economist, real median wages have been decreasing since 2000 in half of the member countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In the United States, there was a 4% increase from 1980 to 2012 in the share of national income that was distributed to the top 0.01% (The Economist, “True Progressivism”). Canada is facing a similar problem of rising inequality.

Vermont Senator and presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, said it best when he said “A nation will not serve morally or economically when so few have so much, and so many have so little.” This quote perfectly describes the issue that The United States is currently dealing with: income inequality. Income inequality is the gap between how much money is made by the rich and everyone else in the nation. It also refers to the unequal distribution of wealth among people in a population. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the gross domestic product (GDP) in the United States has steadily been rising, making it seem as though economic growth is stable (Inequality for All). However, it does not take into account the increasingly widening gap between the 1% and the 99% of the nation’s population. Government officials should pay closer attention to income inequality in The United States because ignoring the issue ultimately hurts American citizens.

The current widening income inequality is due to the substantial income disparity between the top and bottom workers in the U.S. economy. General decline in wage endangered the standard of living for low income family as they struggle with a tightened budget. In order to battle income inequality, policy makers must raise the income of the working poor by expanding tax credit program and increase its effectiveness through major modification.

Organizations that are serious about making improvements are going to have to deal with the issue of job satisfaction. Job satisfaction can be best described as the positive feeling that an individual has about their job resulting from an evaluation of the job’s characteristics (Robbins & Judge, 2009, p.31). It would seem natural to think that job satisfaction would have a positive correlation with successful organizations. What impact does job satisfaction have on an organization? Research will show that there are not only internal effects from performance related issues, but also external effects that impact customer satisfaction.

This article examines the rampant issue of income inequality that has plagued the United States for decades. From the 1970s onward, the 1% of Americans are accumulating more wealth created in the country, leaving the other 99% to scrounge around for the rest; some of these citizens live below the poverty line and may not know if they have enough money to keep the lights on for another month. Evaluating various other reports under the social interpretation of the social conflict theory, the results from most of these findings support the expansion of the labor union’s bargaining power to protect its workers as well as an overhaul of federal and state laws concerning taxes more likely paid by the upper class of citizens.

Income Inequality is a tough policy issue to tackle and relate to the texts the class has been assigned to read. This particular policy issue is rather difficult to give insight on because income inequality is widespread and immense, yet most of Washington and mainstream America will not address this critical matter in question that is happening all over the country. Beliefs are blinding the majority of America when it comes to how money is distributed throughout the social classes and minorities in this nation. Americans have a distorted view of how unequal the pay gap is between the top 20% and the bottom 40%, according to Nicholas Fitz (2015). For instance, in the first study done by Michael Dorton and Dan Ariely, 5,000 Americans guessed that the richest 20% own 59% of the wealth and the bottom 40% own 9% of the wealth (Fitz. 2015). Consequently, the actual statistics are that the top 20% own more than 84% of the wealth, whereas the bottom 40% own a scarce amount of the wealth of 0.3% (Fitz.2015). Elitist view of power, also, is another term that relates to this issue of income inequality due to how government in this country, with regards to how only a few people with power actually know economically, what is happening in America, leaving the majority of American citizens in the dark about how money flows and how discrimination of minorities is hindering their ability to earn livable wages (Fitz.2015). The Federal Poverty Level which is based on the amount of income

People can not put on the news without seeing at least one story about social inequality or injustice, if everyone knows about these inequities why are they not being solved? Inequities are not limited to America, social inequity is a global problem making it extremely important to raise awareness of the topic. Inequities such as racism and sexism impact teenagers in America, but to counteract this persecution authors can use various genres of literature to promote tolerance and reduce the effects of inequities. Racism and sexism violates people’s rights in schools, the workplace, and almost every place in the world. Through the words of authors, society can learn the harmful effects of these inequities, and learn how

A major social problem in America today is its inequality of the distribution of income. "Income inequality refers to the gap between the rich and the poor. The United States has the most unequal income distribution in the industrialized world, and it is growing at a faster rate than any other industrialized country" (Eitzen & Leedham, pg. 37). The main reason as to why income is distributed so unequally is because of the gap between social classes.

Job satisfaction is a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences. It has been treated both as a general attitude and satisfaction with five specific dimensions of the job: pay, the work itself, promotion opportunities, supervision, and coworkers. Challenging work, valued rewards, opportunities for advancement, competent supervision, and supportive coworkers are dimensions of the job that can lead to satisfaction (Nelson & Quick, 2013, pg.

Job satisfaction can be defined as an attitude or feeling one can have toward ones job. Job satisfaction is "the extent to which people like (satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction) in their jobs. (Spector 1997) One of the biggest studies in job satisfaction was the Hawthorne studies which were credited to Elton Mayo in the year's nineteen twenty-four to nineteen fifty-three. Elton

Personal characteristics of workers also has an impact on job satisfaction. Job satisfaction increases age. Whites have greater job satisfaction than non-whites. The level of education is slightly negatively related to job satisfaction. If personal skills and abilities are not required by a job, job satisfaction decreases. When a person is more adjusted personally, they will be more satisfied with work. Most of all having a job with decent and fair wage may be the most important variable to job satisfaction. High job satisfaction is associated with low turnover and low absenteeism and with high commitment. Although the evidence is not conclusive, high job satisfaction is associated with high performance and prosocial behaviors.

To understand the concept of job satisfaction the research has identified two aspects of it, they are, the facets satisfaction and overall satisfaction (Cherrington,1994; Fields, 2002). Individuals can be satisfied or dissatisfied with their overall job (Ironson, Smith, Brannick, Gibson, & Paul, 1989) and with specific job facets, such as the level of pay, promotion opportunities, co-workers, working conditions and supervision, contingent rewards, benefits, nature of work, or communication (Spector, 1997; Locke, 1976; Smith, Kendall & Hulin, 1969). The evidence shows that distinctive job facets such as pay satisfaction, opportunities for promotion, relationships with co-workers and supervisors have significant effects on job satisfaction (Ting, 1997; Ellickson & Logsdon, 2002; Pohlmann; 1999). The overall satisfaction is considered in terms of good salary, compassionate supervisors and co-operative co-workers. Conversely, the job dissatisfaction derives for instance form low pay or incompetent supervisors. Therefore, the feeling of overall satisfaction or dissatisfaction depends on the intensity and frequency of positive and negative experiences with job (Cherrington, 1994; Ironson, Smith, Brannick, Gibson, & Paul,