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- <text id=89TT2826>
- <title>
- Oct. 30, 1989: Business Notes:Income Distribution
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Oct. 30, 1989 San Francisco Earthquake
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 75
- Business Notes
- INCOME DISTRIBUTION
- Two Worlds, Moving Apart
- </hdr><body>
- <p> The seven-year U.S. economic boom has produced great
- rewards, but they have not been distributed equitably. In a
- report issued last week, the Census Bureau found that the gap
- between rich and poor is widening. On the basis of a survey of
- 58,000 households, the bureau estimated that the poorest
- one-fifth of U.S. families received 4.6% of total income -- the
- lowest percentage since 1954. By contrast, the wealthiest
- one-fifth of families accounted for 44% of the income -- the
- highest share ever recorded.
- </p>
- <p> The number of American families living below the poverty
- line, currently an annual income of $12,091 for a family of
- four, fell last year to 13.1% of the population, from 13.4% in
- 1987. But that percentage is still higher than it was a decade
- ago, when it stood at 11.4%. In addition, earnings for full-time
- male workers fell 1.3% in 1988, the first decline since 1982,
- while wages for female workers were unchanged.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-