Millennial Incomes: Wealth Gap Transcends Generations

For many young people, joining the ranks of our nation’s exclusive richest 1 percent feels unreachable, especially when these earners average an annual income of $717,000 a year. According to Fusion, millennials are more aware of income inequality due to a much larger wealth disparity among our own ranks than in previous generations, making earning top incomes seem even further away than ever before.

Fusion created a wealth gap calculator that lets you enter your annual income to see how you rank against other millennials. They found that you need to take home an income of about $106,500 a year to be considered in the top percentile for millennials, placing 720,000 millennials in this bracket. According to Fusion, these top professionals, ranging in ages between 18 and 34, earn about double the combined income of the bottom 20 percent. This may be due to a huge population of millennials–28 million–who aren’t enrolled in school and are making less than 10,000 a year, skewing results. According to Fusion:

In 2000, the median net worth for the top 20 percent of young adult households was 4x the net worth of the other four quintiles combined. In 2011—the most recent year for which data is available—that gap had grown to 8x.

However, our generation’s highest earners do have something in common with older generations–they’re mostly male and white. According to data collected from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, only nine percent are black, while seven percent are Hispanic. Women only make up 28 percent.

However in order to be considered in the top 1 percent of all Americans, $106k a year isn’t necessarily going to cut it. Below is an infographic created by the Economic Policy Institute illustrating each state’s qualifying income to be considered one of the elite earners.

What you need to make to be in your state’s top 1%. http://t.co/3rAq1hb3qd pic.twitter.com/EwMGF7Oqrj

— Economic Policy Inst (@EconomicPolicy) January 30, 2015

While experts disagree on what is actually driving the wage disparity among our peers, one thing is certain–you probably do need a college education in order to reach our highest ranks. Fusion reports:

Millennials with bachelor’s degrees have the greatest share of their generation’s One Percent, at 39 percent, compared with just 7 percent for individuals who only graduated high school and 10 percent for college dropouts.

That means that making college more affordable may be an essential first step in helping to lower the current wealth gap in America. If we continue with how things currently are, individuals attending college will continue to climb up the “wealth ladder” passing over lesser educated individuals and sustaining our unfortunate status quo. Inequality appears to be business as usual, for now at least.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.