What can be done about it?

MAKE WORK PAY- The fastest-growing categories of work are retail, restaurant (including fast food), hospital, hotel, childcare and eldercare. But these jobs tend to pay very little. A first step is to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 and hour, pegging it to inflation; abolish the tipped wage; and expand the Earned Income Tax Credit. No American who works full time should be in poverty. 

UNIONIZE LOW-WAGE WORKERS- The rise and fall of the American middle class correlates almost exactly with the rise and fall of private-sector unions, because unions gave the middle class the bargaining power it needed to secure a fair share of the gains economic growth. We need to reinvigorate unions, beginning with low-wage service occupations that are sheltered from global competition and from labor-replacing technologies. Lower-wage Americans deserve more bargaining power.

INVEST IN EDUCATION- This investment should extend from early childhood through world-class primary and secondary schools, affordable public higher education, good technical education and lifelong learning. Education should not be thought of as a private investment; it is a public good that helps both individuals and the economy. Yet for too many Americans, high-quality education is unaffordable and unattainable. Every American should have an equal opportunity to make the most of herself or himself. High-quality education should be freely available to all, starting at the age of 3 and extending through four years of university or technical education. 

What are the causes?

A prime example is the United States for instance. The income share of just the top one half of the top one percent grew from 5.39 percent of the nations income in 1979 to 13.37 percent in 2010. By contrast, over the same time period the share of the bottom 90 percent fell from 67.65 percent to 53.74 percent of the nations wealth. Yet again, keeping the rich more richer while the poor just keep getting more and more poor.

A grotesque depiction of the rapid inequality. 

First, they focus largely on the relatively high wages of the 90th percentile of earners to that of the 10th percentile, which misses the fact that much of the increase in inequality was well above the 90th percentile. Again, with the United States as an example, growth in wages at the 90th percentile of wages only just kept pace with the overall average. Ninety percent of the distribution failed to keep up.

Why is this issue important to all of us?

Well, income inequality should be, if not already, important to all of us. We as a community should understand what's going on with our economy and not only concerned when it peaks our interest. We are being treated as if we don't need to provide for our families because a minimum wage job is only meant to support yourself. This issue should be important because we can complain about income inequality all day but unless we are really ready for a change, it would be nearly impossible for things to work in our favor. Minimum wage workers shouldn't be able to barely put food on the table because they don't get paid enough. Minimum wage workers shouldn't be able to fight for what's right and still get cheated out of their hours. We need a stronger worker union. We shouldn't be settling because we feel as though if we question or ask for more we can be replaced. We need to fight without the worry of being fired because if we don't who will? How much longer are going to continue to let companies railroad us? Take out insurance policies on workers without their knowledge because they feel they can do as such? IT'S NOT FAIR!


In the Untied States, consumer spending account for approximately 70 percent if economic activity. If consumers don't have adequate purchasing power, businesses have no incentive to expand or hire additional workers. Because the rich spend a smaller proportion of their incomes than the middle class and the poor, it stands to reason that as a larger and larger share of the nation's total income goes to the top, consumer demand is dampened. If the middle class is forced to borrow in order to maintain its standard of living, that dampening may come suddenly-when debt bubbles burst.

In progress..

Why this issue matters to me?

Income inequality matters a lot to me because America is supposed to be the greatest country ever, (opinionated.) There are tons of resources here that aren't available in other third world countries and here were are, still having workers who cannot make a living off of minimum wage. It's revolting. We have people putting in hours, many hours and can't even earn a decent living. Housing keeps gentrifying and the money more you're allowed to make off of minimum wage the less hours you work. Unbelievable right? We fight for more money but then they cut our hours. The rich keeps getting more rich meanwhile the poor stays poor. So much for our economic system right?

What do I hope to achieve with this goal?

With creating this blog, I hope to achieve my goal of further extending my education. I mean there's nothing wrong with a minimum wage job, even the jobs you don't want have someone doing them. I need to set the bar for myself and my soon to be family in the future. I need stability. With doing this research, I realized that a lot of families are not surviving or even barely making it by on minimum wage. Things need to change. How can we strive for better when we can't even help our fellow brother or sister out? The change starts with us. If you're only concerned with yourself and ways to only benefit you, there will never be a change because a job just doesn't concern YOU, it concerns their other EMPLOYEES who work their hardest and strive for better too. They also need someone standing in their corner, vouching for them as well. 

• The wealthy percentage (10%) of the population versus the poor percentage (90%) have been at an advantage since the early 1970's.