Justice
The Sharp Rise of the Upper-Middle Class
Income inequality isn’t just about the 1 percent—wealth is increasing for the next 19 percent, too.
Since the recession, America’s middle class has been shrinking as a whole, and fewer people than before feel they belong in it. Meanwhile, people in the top 1 (and 0.1 and 0.01) percent have seen a steep rise in their income.
But obscured by the startling climb of the richest of the rich is a subtler, but perhaps equally concerning, trend within the layer below. The upper-middle class—taken here to mean the 19 percent below the top 1 percent—has been leaving everyone below it behind. Its income has been rising over the last three decades, while those below it remain stagnant.