Income Gap Between Middle and Upper Class Continues to Expand

As a recent article on CNNMoney.com discusses, the gap between the middle and upper class has been increasing rapidly for the last several decades. As the following chart indicates, while the average income of the population has remained largely unchanged, those receving incomes in the top 5% have experienced a steady climb in their wages. One possible cause of this increased gap that this article mentions is increased globalization, which, according to the article, has benefitted American corporations at the expense of lower and middle class workers by providing access to cheaper unskilled labor. Globalization has also provided other opportunities for the wealthy to become even wealthier, such as investment opportunities and new markets. Another possible cause of the increasing gap that the article mentions is the erosion of collective bargaining with a decrease in Union membership over the last 30 years. Posted by Brittany