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[The Palm Beach Post, January 26, 2015]
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<p><strong>By Jeff Ostrowski - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer</strong></p>
<p>In a sign of increasing wealth concentration, Florida’s richest 1 percent of residents make 43 times as much as the state’s bottom 99 percent, according to a study released Monday.</p>
<p>Florida has the nation’s fourth-highest income gap, the Economic Policy Institute calculated. Whether the growing gulf is a troubling trend or just an inevitable result of a free-market economy is open to debate.</p>
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<p>The top 1 percent of Florida wage earners made an average of $1.49 million in 2012, the study found. The bottom 99 percent earned an average family income of $34,387.</p>
<p>Connecticut, the nation’s hedge fund capital, and New York, home of Wall Street, had the largest gaps between the top 1 percent and the bottom 99 percent.</p>
<p>It’s unclear if a wide gap is such a bad thing, however. Massachusetts, Texas and Illinois — states with large numbers of corporate headquarters — also rank high on this measure. But low-wage West Virginia — no one’s model of economic development — has one of the nation’s narrowest income gaps.</p>
<p>Still, the Economic Policy Institute found that the rich got richer after the Great Recession, while most everyone else struggled. The top 1 percent of Floridians posted income gains of 40 percent, while the bottom 99 percent suffered a 7 percent decline.</p>
<p>“What concerns me is that it’s continuing to get worse,” said Michael Dolega, senior economist at TD Bank in Toronto. “That paints a pretty bleak picture of the recovery in Florida. Job growth in Florida has been skewed toward the lower end of the wage scale.”</p>
<p>A widening income gap between the top and bottom might not be so bad if lower-tier wage earners are prospering, said University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith.</p>
<p>“This is the paradox,” Snaith said. “You have these superstar earners who started a tech company that’s gone from being worth nothing to being worth billions.”</p>
<p>A more telling measure, Snaith said, is whether lower-income Floridians can move up the income ladder. The picture is mixed there, too. From 2009 to 2012, the 1 percent took a huge share of Florida’s income growth, the Economic Policy Institute found.</p>
<p>Snaith said those numbers were inflated by a stock market that crashed in 2009 and then roared back by 2012, a move that boosted income for the wealthy.</p>
<p>Income inequality has emerged as a pivotal issue for next year’s presidential election, but liberals and conservatives disagree on how to spur job growth and wages. President Barack Obama last week called for a higher minimum wage and stiffer taxes on the wealthy. Republicans counter that the correct answer is lower taxes and less regulation.</p>
<p>“Inequality doesn’t necessarily point the way to a specific policy path,” Snaith said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/business/florida-has-fourth-largest-income-gap-in-us-study-/njxWC/#e4eead8f.3862469.735625">MORE>></a></p>
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<p>In a sign of increasing wealth concentration, Florida’s richest 1 percent of residents make 43 times as much as the state’s bottom 99 percent, according to a study released Monday.</p>
<p>Florida has the nation’s fourth-highest income gap, the Economic Policy Institute calculated. Whether the growing gulf is a troubling trend or just an inevitable result of a free-market economy is open to debate.</p>
<div>
<p>The top 1 percent of Florida wage earners made an average of $1.49 million in 2012, the study found. The bottom 99 percent earned an average family income of $34,387.</p>
<p>Connecticut, the nation’s hedge fund capital, and New York, home of Wall Street, had the largest gaps between the top 1 percent and the bottom 99 percent.</p>
<p>It’s unclear if a wide gap is such a bad thing, however. Massachusetts, Texas and Illinois — states with large numbers of corporate headquarters — also rank high on this measure. But low-wage West Virginia — no one’s model of economic development — has one of the nation’s narrowest income gaps.</p>
<p>Still, the Economic Policy Institute found that the rich got richer after the Great Recession, while most everyone else struggled. The top 1 percent of Floridians posted income gains of 40 percent, while the bottom 99 percent suffered a 7 percent decline.</p>
<p>“What concerns me is that it’s continuing to get worse,” said Michael Dolega, senior economist at TD Bank in Toronto. “That paints a pretty bleak picture of the recovery in Florida. Job growth in Florida has been skewed toward the lower end of the wage scale.”</p>
<p>A widening income gap between the top and bottom might not be so bad if lower-tier wage earners are prospering, said University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith.</p>
<p>“This is the paradox,” Snaith said. “You have these superstar earners who started a tech company that’s gone from being worth nothing to being worth billions.”</p>
<p>A more telling measure, Snaith said, is whether lower-income Floridians can move up the income ladder. The picture is mixed there, too. From 2009 to 2012, the 1 percent took a huge share of Florida’s income growth, the Economic Policy Institute found.</p>
<p>Snaith said those numbers were inflated by a stock market that crashed in 2009 and then roared back by 2012, a move that boosted income for the wealthy.</p>
<p>Income inequality has emerged as a pivotal issue for next year’s presidential election, but liberals and conservatives disagree on how to spur job growth and wages. President Barack Obama last week called for a higher minimum wage and stiffer taxes on the wealthy. Republicans counter that the correct answer is lower taxes and less regulation.</p>
<p>“Inequality doesn’t necessarily point the way to a specific policy path,” Snaith said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/business/florida-has-fourth-largest-income-gap-in-us-study-/njxWC/#e4eead8f.3862469.735625">MORE>></a></p>
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