Essay on Income Inequality in the United States

Income refers to the revenues that result from wages, salaries, saving interest, dividend, and profits that are accrued from commercial services (Ichiro & Subramanian, 76). On the other hand, income inequality refers to the uneven distribution of income among the population and therefore increasing the gap between the wealthiest individuals and everyone else in the country. The income disparities in the United States have been growing considerably as predicted by statistical measures in the last thirty years. This change can be attributed to various factors which also affect the nations economy. The comparison shows a significant disparity among the top earners and bottom earners (Cingano, 97). However, the uneven distribution can also be seen in the top 1 percent which indicates that they earn a disproportionate amount of income. The extreme shift in income occurred around the 1990s and which saw an explosion in the sizes of ultra-rich income (Cingano, 106).

Education and wealth can be attributed to the income disparities. Affordable education has been a critical element with bipartisan support. Financial assistance has made education more accessible, and this has increased income disparities. More training raises the skill premium, and the case of unskilled skills suffers a decreasing wage. When the ability is premium only the best, and high-quality personnel is employed leaving a pool of man educated people jobless (Kawachi, 86).

Higher education increases income mobility for the low-income students. When access is limited by low family income, then only the rich are likely to graduate, and hence this does not influence the low-income student life positively. It is clear that parents income is the predictor of the childrens future income. Possession of bachelors degree enhances higher incomes, job choice, satisfaction, and security (Kawachi, 96). This means some areas which have low graduates will critically need these graduates. This, in turn, increases their salaries and leads to disparities. This is also happening in cases where some degrees are classified as market relevant than others.

Job discrimination has also had enormous impacts on income disparities. In some cases, high competition in the market has resulted in prejudice. In some areas such as China and India, labor costs are low, and hence US companies have led to outsourcing human resources both high tech and manufacturing jobs. Immigrants filing more low paid positions create high supply, and therefore US workers have weak bargaining power. Hiring processes with racial discrimination have considerably widened the black-white income gap (Michael & Howard, 13). Despite the presence of the anti-discrimination policy, the income inequalities are still evident between these two groups. Housing discrimination limits blacks access to education resulting in differential skills. Living in high poverty neighborhoods does not expose the learned to jobs.

Skill and workers ability has a connection with income disparities. The best workers concerning skills and competency are more probable to find high paying jobs(Michael & Howard, 17). Thus those people of low skills may find jobs which are paying below the federal minimum wage. Monopoly in the workplace ensures most positions are available for such individuals. When this occurs, income from such engagement is usually negotiated leading to better pay.

The income inequalities in the US has grown tremendously over past thirty years. The gap is still widening, and this can be attributed to various factors. Education, discrimination and workers abilities and monopoly have been described to show they affect the income disparities (Kawachi, 83). The inequality is working with multiple groups such as the top achievers and bottom achievers. The shift is also evident among the very most exceptional 1 percent top earners. Other factors identified to influence this disparity are; low savings returns, little disposable income growth, technological changes, labor outsourcing, and income stagnation (Ichiro & Subramanian, 70). These issues are in turn affecting the US economy and resulting to slow growth.

Works Cited

Cingano, Federico. "Trends in Income Inequality and its Impact on Economic Growth."INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS RESEARCH JOURNAL 10.3 (2015): 97-133.

Ichiro, and S. V. Subramanian. "Income inequality." Social epidemiology 126 (2014). Omi, Kawachi, Corak, Miles. "Income inequality, equality of opportunity, and intergenerationalmobility." The Journal of Economic Perspectives 27.3 (2013): 79-102.

Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial formation in the United States. Routledge, 2014.