Smart Talk: Report says income inequality growing

What to look for on Smart Talk Wednesday, January 28, 2015:

A new report out this week shows the top 1% of wage earners in Pennsylvania are the only group that has seen an increase in their incomes since the nation’s economy began to recover.

The Increasingly Unequal States of America: Income Inequality by State looked at income growth on a state-by-state basis across the country. The report was compiled by the Economic Analysis Research Network and the Economic Policy Institute and in Pennsylvania by the Keystone Research Center.

The report says that since the current economic expansion began in 2009, real incomes have increased 3.7% in Pennsylvania. During that period, the income of the top 1% of earners increased 28.6% while incomes for the other 99% fell 1.1%.

Dr. Mark Price, an economist with the Keystone Research Center was one of the report’s co-authors. He’ll appear on Wednesday’s Smart Talk.