Title: Causes of income inequality in the United States - Wikipedia
Headings: Causes of income inequality in the United States
Causes of income inequality in the United States
Main article: Income inequality in the United States
Contents
Divergence of productivity and compensation
Overall
Analyzing the gap
Reasons for the gap
Market factors
Globalization
Superstar hypothesis
Education
Skill-biased technological change
Race and gender disparities
Incentives
Stock buybacks
Tax and transfer policies
Background
Income taxes
Taxes on capital
Other tax policies
Debate over effects of tax policies
Transfer payments
Tax expenditures
Other causes
Shifts in political power
Decline of unions
Political parties and presidents
Non-party political action
Immigration
Wage theft
Corporatism
Neoliberalism
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Content: By 2015, 225 million did. On the other hand, those in the middle class of the developed world (those in the 75th to 90th percentile in 1988, such as the American middle class) experienced little real income gains. The richest 1% contains 60 million persons globally, including 30 million Americans (i.e., the top 12% of Americans by income were in the global top 1% in 2008), the most out of any country. While economists who have studied globalization agree imports have had an effect, the timing of import growth does not match the growth of income inequality. By 1995 imports of manufactured goods from low-wage countries totalled less than 3% of US gross domestic product. It wasn't until 2006 that the US imported more manufactured goods from low-wage (developing) countries than from high-wage (advanced) economies. Inequality increased during the 2000–2010 decade not because of stagnating wages for less-skilled workers, but because of accelerating incomes of the top 0.1%. Author Timothy Noah estimates that "trade", increases in imports are responsible for just 10% of the "Great Divergence" in income distribution. Journalist James Surowiecki notes that in the last 50 years, companies and the sectors of the economy providing the most employment in the US – major retailers, restaurant chains, and supermarkets – are ones with lower profit margins and less pricing power than in the 1960s; while sectors with high profit margins and average salaries – like high technology – have relatively few employees.