Household Income Inequality

Executive Compensation. I’m in agreement with Thomas Piketty that the one cause of rising inequality in the United States “the rise of supersalaries” for top executives (Piketty & Goldhammer, 2014, p. 298). The average American estimates CEO to worker pay ratio at about 30-to-1, which is more than 4 times what they believe to be ideal. The career review site Glassdoor reported from 2014 data that the average pay ratio of CEO to median worker was 204-to-1 and that at the top of the list, four CEOs earn more than 1,000 times the salary of their median worker with the very top pay ratio of 1,951-to-1. In some cases a CEO makes in one-hour what it takes the average employee six-months to earn. In comparison, the Washington Post reported for the

In Income Inequality: Too Big to Ignore, Robert H. Frank paints a picture to the reader about the struggles of pier pressure. For example: an upper-classmen chooses to buy a big house and fancy clothing. This acts as a “frame of reference” to the changes and norms of the society. If he spends money on something nice, a middle-classmen will then go and decide to do the same thing, and then a lower-classmen…all the way down the social hierarchy. This is what he calls an “expenditure cascade.” Robert relates this with a person’s downfalls, which can be traced due to lower income inequality. Income inequality basically means that in a given quantity, the dispersion of income is underlined by the gap between individuals and or households with

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.

Amongst all of the presidential candidates of the 2016 race, one in particular stands above the rest. Bernie Sanders, running as a democrat, holds the highest capability to better the nation amongst all other candidates.

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.

taxpayers grew by 18.9 percent. Simultaneously, the average income of the top 1 percent grew over 10 times as much—by 200.5 percent. Those in the top 1 percent of households doubled their share of pretax income from 1979 to 2007; the bottom 80 percent saw their share fall. Worse, as the average real income for the top 1% more than tripled, the bottom 80% saw only feeble income growth, on the order of just 205 over nearly 30 years. After incomes at all levels declined as a result of the Great Recession, lopsided income growth has reemerged at higher rates since the recovery began in 2009. University of California, Berkeley economist, Emmanuel Saez estimated that from the first year of the recovery in 2009 to 2012, the top one percent captured an alarming 95% of all income growth; this suggests that the bottom 99% of earners -- which encompasses all of the middle class, the group harmed most by the recession -- hardly saw any recovery during the first three recovery years. In 2012, the top 1% of United States earners collected a record 19.3% share of total household income, surpassing the previous mark of 18.7% in 1927. The level of income inequality in the United States has reached new record levels domestically; relative to other nation’s income inequality level, the United States still rates poorly. According the World Bank’s GINI index, which measures how much an economy deviates from perfectly equal

In any given population, there is a difference between what people within the population earn. The uneven distribution of income in any given population is income inequality. In order for there to be income, there has to be several sources of income. These sources of income may be combinational or independent per person receiving the income. Income may result from wages, rent, bank account interests, salaries or even profits made in business transactions ( Stiglitz, 2012).

Imagine that the U.S economy is a group of ten people making a cake. Despite the fact that everyone contributed, one person would take 90% of the cake. The other nine would be left to fight over the renaming 10%. In what universe would this be a fair situation.

What is Income Inequality? Well “Income Inequality is the unequal distribution” of family or individual wage over the different individuals in an economy. Income inequality is often showen up “as the percentage of income to a percentage of population” (Staff.) Income inequality creates and impacts the U.S. in different aspects, whether it is distinguished by “region, gender, education and social status” (Staff), as well as there are certain causes and potential solutions to resolve the problems that Income Inequality creates.

In order to correct our economic system’s faults, we must understand that the problem is multifaceted and won’t improve unless addressed as such. This will be rather difficult considering how the U.S’s system is constructed and the range of problems facing us. The problems facing us not only include low wages but inflated prices for higher education, food, necessities, and cars which are technically a luxury but are sometimes needed to obtain and keep a well paying job due to gaps in the public transportation system. Personally, this has affected myself because the private security industry is riddled with jobs/schedules which make taking public transport difficult or sometimes impossible. There are others like myself who then have a more difficult time looking for stable work that’s also accessible on transit.

Income inequality has been a major concern around the world, and it mainly links to how economic metrics are distributed among individuals in a country. Economists generally categorise these metrics in wealth, income and consumption. Wilkinson and Picket (2009) showed in their studies that inequality has drawbacks that lead to social problems. This is because income inequality and wealth concentration can hinder or delay long term growth. In 2011, International Monetary Fund economists showed that less income inequality increased the duration of countries’ economic growth spells more than free trade, low government corruption, foreign investment or low foreign debt (Berg and Ostry, 2011).

Income inequality has been a major issue in American history. There are many different factors that contribute to inequality. These include education, wealth, discrimination, ability, and monopoly power.

The gender income inequality in Australia does not only place a significant stress upon Australian women and their families but can also damage the economic growth rate of a nation as a whole. Having ethical rights to income, employment and opportunities for women will not just increase personal independence and security but will decrease the dependency on government support including reduction of child poverty rates.

The growing inequalities in our society and individual’s motivation to work can be explained through different theoretical perspectives. This essay will provide examinations on two theories, the functionalist perspective of social stratification and Max Weber’s perspective of rationalisation and life chances. In the first section of the paper, the differences and similarities of these theories’ understanding of people’s motivation to work are discussed. This will be followed by the comparison of how the two theories explain the general trend of the rise of income inequality. Overall, the essay seeks to contend that the functionalist theory fits better in explaining the general trend of rise of income inequalities as opposed to Weber’s theories.

Theories about how the economy works and what will happen in the economy where there is monetary policy or fiscal policy intervention are appropriate in assisting policy-makers understand the possible implications of decisions they make or are under consideration. However, they are rarely complete models and often outcomes cannot be predicted. Reintroduction of a theory suggests that new evidence in support of the theory has been reported.