NEW YORK (Reuter) - Economic class differences in the United States are more pronounced than in any other industrialized nation, the New York Times reported Monday.
Citing economic and statistical research yet to be published, the Times reported that in 1989, the wealthiest one percent of American households—with assets worth $2.3 million each—owns "nearly 40 percent of the nation's wealth."
The top 20 percent of households, with assets of $180,000 or more, owns 80 percent of America's wealth, the newspaper said.
In contrast, the richest one percent of the British population owns about 18 percent of the wealth.
On the lower end of the scale, the studies showed the lowest earning 20 percent of households earn 5.7 percent of America's after-tax income.
In Finland, the lowest 20 percent earns 10.8 percent of after-tax income.
In terms of income, the top 20 percent of American households earn $55,000 or more and bring in 55 percent of the after-tax income, the paper reported.
The author of two of the studies on wealth in Western countries is New York University Professor Edward Wolff, an economist who is to publish the papers in the next few months, the newspaper reported.
"We are the most unequal industrialized country in terms of income and wealth, and we're growing more unequal faster than the other industrialized countries," Wolff told the Times.
"It tilts the political system toward those who have more resources," Margaret Weir of the Brookings Institution was quoted as saying.
Another scholar preparing studies for publication is Timothy Smeeding, director of the Luxembourg Income Study Project.
'"U.S. wage distribution is more unequal than other countries and we do less in terms of tax and transfer policy" to subsidize the poor, Smeeding, an American, told the Times.
Canada and the Netherlands are also experiencing a widening wage gap between high-skilled and low-skilled workers, Peter Gottschalk, an economics professor at Boston College, was quoted as saying.
While there was no agreement on possible causes, the newspaper reported that explanations for the increasing U.S. disparities in income include falling wages for unskilled workers due to automation, low tax rates on the rich during the 1980s and the decline of trade unions.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The gap between haves and have nots is greater in the United States than in other Western countries and appears to be widening, The New York Times reported Monday, citing new studies.
Federal Reserve figures from 1989 show that the richest 1 percent of American households owned nearly 40 percent of the nation's wealth. Their net worth started at $2.3 million.
The same year in Britain, where the richest 1 percent possessed 59 percent of the wealth in the decade just after World War I, the figure was 18 percent.
The top 20 percent of American households, families worth $180,000 or more, had 80 percent of the wealth, a bigger share than in any other industrial nation, the Times said.
In Finland, where distribution of income is particularly even, the lowest-earning 20 percent of the population gets 10.8 percent of the income. In the United States, the figure is only 5.7 percent.
The Times said inequality has risen in the United States since the 1970s and explanations include the spread of automation that eliminates unskilled income, low tax rates for the rich, a relatively low minimum wage, the decline of trade unions and rising stock and bond markets.
"We are the most unequal industrialized country in terms of income and wealth, and we're growing more unequal faster than the other industrialized countries," said New York University economics Professor Edward N. Wolff.
In two forthcoming papers, Wolff compared wealth patterns in Western countries. They are among research the Times cited.
The Times also said that Census figures show the gap widened past the period of Wolff's research into 1993, the first year of the Clinton administration. While the two fifths most wealthy American households enjoyed higher incomes as the economy expanded, everyone else in this country saw their incomes fall when adjustments are made for inflation.