INCOME INEQUALITY CONTINUES TO WIDEN. ALATKT. No. 431.

Librarians can assist people by using the 2007 Earned Income Tax Credit Outreach Kit

The Center for Budget Policy and Priorities reports:

The Congressional Budget Office recently released extensive data on household incomes for 2004. CBO issues the most comprehensive and authoritative data available on the levels of and changes in incomes and taxes for different income groups, capturing trends at the very top of the income scale that are not shown in Census data.


The new CBO data document that income inequality continued to widen in 2004. The average after-tax income of the richest one percent of households rose from $722,000 in 2003 to $868,000 in 2004, after adjusting for inflation, a one-year increase of nearly $146,000, or 20 percent. This increase was the largest increase in 15 years, measured both in percentage terms and in real dollars.[2]

In contrast, the income of the middle fifth of the population rose $1,700, or 3.6 percent, to $48,400 in 2004. The income of the bottom fifth rose a scant $200 (or 1.4 percent) to $14,700.

The new data also highlight the degree to which income gains over the past quarter-century have become increasingly concentrated at the top of the income scale. Since 1979 — the first year for which the CBO date are available — income gains among high-income households have dwarfed those of middle- and low-income households.

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2007 Earned Income Credit and Child Tax Credit Outreach Kit
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