No Bad News for the Wealthiest One Percent

They say money doesn’t buy happiness, but America’s richest one percent might disagree. That’s because the chasm between the richest one percent of Americans and the rest of the country’s workers has gotten bigger … meaning the rich keep getting richer.

In fact, that one percent cross-section took home just shy of 20 percent of household income last year … 19.2% to be exact. This is the largest total in 85 years, when the country was in the “Roaring Twenties.”

It’s been no secret that the distribution of wealth has become increasingly more disproportionate; in fact, it has been that way for the better part of the last 30 years. But according to research conducted by economists at the University of California, Berkeley; the Paris School of Economics and Oxford University, the percentages are not even close to being uniform across the board.

Last year, the wealthiest one percent saw a rise in their incomes of nearly 20%. Meanwhile, the rest of the country’s work force saw a meager one percent increase. And since the 2009 recession, the top one percent has reaped the rewards to the tune of 95 percent of all income gains. When compared to a 45% share during the 1990s, you can see the alarming difference.

There are some theories as to why these percentages are so out of whack. One in particular seems to make sense. Economist Emmanuel Saez from the University of California, Berkeley believes many of the wealthy folks cashed in some of their stock holdings in an effort to avoid getting stung by higher capital gains taxes that began at the beginning of 2013.

Do you want to find out for yourself what it’s like to be in the top one percent of household incomes? You’ll need to be at about $395,000 per year. To be in the top 10 percent, you’ll need to exceed $114,000 per year.