The Blubber

The wealth disparity in the United States continues to grow. As of the first quarter of 2023, "69% of the total wealth in the United States was owned by the top 10% of earners," according to Statista, while the "lowest 50% of earners owned just 2.4% of the total wealth."

This inequality stems from the fact that "wealth is much more highly concentrated than income, and concentration at the top has risen since the 1980s," the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) reported. Over the past three decades, the data highlights a sharp increase in wealth concentration. The share of wealth held by the top 1% rose "from just under 30% in 1989 to 38.6% in 2016," the CBPP noted. Meanwhile, the share of wealth held by the bottom 90% decreased from 33.2% to 22.8%, illustrating not only the rising fortunes of the wealthy but also the declining financial standing of the rest.

This stark divide isn't new but continues to reveal the imbalance in wealth distribution: "The bottom 50% of households hold less than 2% of wealth, while the top 10% hold almost three-quarters," the CBPP emphasized. This wealth gap has far-reaching implications, affecting industries ranging from Hollywood to corporate boardrooms to minimum-wage jobs. The growing disparity has become "a significant topic of political debate and a pressing public policy concern," the Brookings Institution stated. But what does the data tell us about the high and low ends of the spectrum?

Who Are the Top and Bottom Earners?

To join the top 1% of earners in the United States, a household needs an annual income of at least $652,657, according to a study by financial adviser SmartAsset. These households earn "more than eight times as much as the median household, which makes around $75,000," the study added.

However, this threshold varies significantly by location. In West Virginia, an annual income of $367,582 is enough to place a household in the top 1%. Meanwhile, in Connecticut, the highest-ranking state, a household needs $952,902 to make the cut. If Washington, D.C., were a state, it "would rank No. 1 overall in our study," SmartAsset noted, as the top 1% threshold in the nation’s capital is $1,013,698.

On the other end of the spectrum, at least 38 million Americans lived in poverty at the end of 2021, according to Census Bureau data. This represented 11.6% of the U.S. population, despite the nation being the wealthiest in the world.

Poverty, as Shailly Gupta Barnes, policy director at the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice, told CNBC, is "as much a part of the American story as successes to the American dream." Barnes explained that poverty is measured by "comparing pretax income against a threshold set at three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963." However, Grace Bonilla, president of United Way New York City, criticized this outdated measure, stating it "falls far short of accurately capturing the true extent of poverty in the United States."