Income Inequality Means What

According to the irs the top 13 of all income earners those.

Income inequality means what. Income inequality is the state of an economy in which the shares of total income earned by the rich and poor are highly unequal. Income inequality is defined as an unequal distribution of income between the masses or a situation when a large proportion of total income is held by the small percentage of the population which is possible due to various reasons such as the variation in sources of income number of dependents easier availability of resources etc. That ratio was 4 5 in japan 9 4 in canada 17 7 in singapore and 40 6 in. Income inequality refers to the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among a population.

Income inequality also means a serious decrease in the viability of social mobility for those in lower income brackets. For instance according to the irs the total adjusted gross income for all individuals in the united states was 7 626 430 723 in 2009. Income inequality depresses economic growth since more people are making less money and therefore have less to spend. Income disparities are so pronounced that america s top 10 percent now average more than nine times as much income as the bottom 90 percent according to data analyzed by uc berkeley economist emmanuel saez.

The less equal the distribution the higher income inequality is. According to the united nations human development report the ratio of the income earned by the richest 10 to that of the poorest 10 of the population was 15 9 in the united states in 2007. Income inequality is how unevenly income is distributed throughout a population. Income inequality in economics significant disparity in the distribution of income between individuals groups populations social classes or countries income inequality is a major dimension of social stratification and social class it affects and is affected by many other forms of inequality such as inequalities of wealth political power and social status.