Poverty and Inequality

Inequality Trends Economic Security Program Successes

Report

A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality

January 13, 2020 | Chad Stone, Danilo Trisi, Arloc Sherman and Jennifer Beltrán

The years from the end of World War II into the 1970s were ones of substantial economic growth and broadly shared prosperity. Beginning in the 1970s, economic growth slowed and the income gap widened.

Deep Poverty Among Children Rose in TANF’s First Decade, Then Fell as Other Programs Strengthened

February 27, 2020

Blog

Census: Income Gains Uneven Across States, Racial and Ethnic Groups

October 8, 2019

Report

Child Poverty Falls to Record Low, Comprehensive Measure Shows Stronger Government Policies Account for Long-Term Improvement

October 5, 2017

Report

Government’s Pandemic Response Turned a Would-Be Poverty Surge Into a Record Poverty Decline

August 29, 2023 | Danilo Trisi

Report

Deep Poverty Among Children Rose in TANF’s First Decade, Then Fell as Other Programs Strengthened

February 27, 2020 | Danilo Trisi and Matt Saenz

New on this Topic

Report

What to Watch for in Next Week’s Census Data on Poverty, Income, and Health Insurance in 2022

September 7, 2023

Statement

In Pandemic’s Second Year, Government Policies Helped Drive Child Poverty Rate to a Record Low, Cut Uninsured Rate, New Census Data Show

September 13, 2022

Report

What to Know About Next Week’s Poverty, Income, and Health Insurance Figures for 2021

September 8, 2022

Statement

Parrott: Today’s Census Data Show That Vigorous Policies Kept 53 Million People Above Poverty Line in 2020

September 14, 2021

Report

What to Expect in This Week’s Poverty, Income, and Health Insurance Figures for 2020

September 13, 2021

Research Note

Research Note: How the Pandemic Could Skew Official Poverty Figures for 2019

September 8, 2020

Policy Basics

The gap between rich and poor has been growing for decades, reaching levels not seen since the “Roaring ‘20s.”

We track income trends, and we analyze tax and spending proposals for their effects on income inequality. We promote policies that would help offset rising inequality, and we oppose policies that would make inequality worse.

Experts

Claire Zippel

Nine Things You Might Not Know About Minimum-Wage Workers

In debates over raising the minimum wage, it’s important to know who we’re talking about, CBPP Senior Fellow Jared Bernstein explains today in the New York Times’ Upshot blog. His post...

No, the OECD Didn’t Say We Already Do a Lot to Reduce Inequality

Critics of proposals to reduce income inequality sometimes cite a 2008 Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) report that found, among other things, that the United States has...

Gradual Phase-In Helps Employers Adapt to Minimum Wage Hike

The Senate will vote today on a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016, providing important, tangible benefits to low-wage workers. Seemingly unaware that the increase phases in over...

New Report Highlights Need for States to Help Address Income Inequality

An important new report documents rising inequality in states across the country. As we outlined in our 2012 analysis of state-by-state income inequality, states can — and should — take certain...

Greenstein: We Need a Stronger EITC and Minimum Wage

On last night’s PBS “NewsHour,” CBPP President Robert Greenstein discussed the President’s new budget and issues that both sides of the aisle might agree on. In this exchange with host Judy...

Why a Higher Minimum Wage Is a Net Win for Most Income Groups

Here’s a point about the minimum wage that hasn’t received enough attention: A rise to $10.10, from the current $7.25, raises average incomes for roughly the bottom half of all Americans...

Why We Need a Stronger Minimum Wage

Our last post noted that support for expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for childless workers — as President Obama recommended last night — is growing on both sides of the aisle. ...

Bernstein: Raising the Minimum Wage Would Boost the Economy

Raising the minimum wage would help the economy, CBPP Senior Fellow Jared Bernstein writes in the latest edition of the CQ Researcher. Two well-established facts help back up this argument,...

Illustrating Income Inequality: A Recap

Our blog series last week, Illustrating Income Inequality, showed in three animated graphs how most of the income growth in recent decades has occurred at the very top. The first post illustrated the...

Illustrating Income Inequality, Part 3: Top 1 Percent’s Share of Income Largest Since 1920s

In our second post, we showed how income gains since 1979 at the very top have far outpaced those for everyone else. In this post, we’ll look at how the top 1 percent’s share of all income has...

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