Wealth disparities worsen

Middle class richer, wealthy even better

WASHINGTON — Most American families grew richer between 2013 and 2016, but the wealthiest households pulled even further ahead, worsening the nation’s massive disparities in wealth and income.

The median net worth of all American families rose 16 percent last year from 2013 to $97,300, according to a Federal Reserve survey released Wednesday. The median is the point where half of families fall below and half above. That’s the first gain for middle class households since the recession upended the economy nearly a decade ago.

The figures echo data released earlier this month from the Census Bureau, which also showed middle-class incomes rising. Since 2015, the economic recovery’s benefits have been spread broadly, to nearly all income levels and racial and ethnic groups. But those gains arrived after the first five years of the recovery, when higher-earning households reaped most of the benefits. A low and falling unemployment rate has helped push up pay, while rising home prices have restored some wealth to middle income families.

Even with the improvement, the Fed’s report, known as the Survey of Consumer Finances, starkly illustrates the depth of the nation’s wealth and income gaps. The disparities exist along lines of income, race and ethnicity, and between cities and rural dwellers.

“You’re seeing a continuing pulling apart in the wealth and income data,” said Elise Gould, economist at Economic Policy Institute.

It also points to why so many Americans remain frustrated with the economy: On many measures, most families still haven’t fully recovered from the 2008-2009 downturn. In fact, the median measures for wealth and income still trail their 2001 levels.

Lael Brainard, a Fed policymaker, raised concerns in a speech Tuesday that long-running inequalities may hobble U.S. economic growth.

The Fed’s survey found that even as median net worth climbed 16 percent, average net worth rose more quickly, by 26 percent to $692,100. Those differences between the median and average figures mostly reflect stronger gains at the top of the income scale. Net worth includes the value of housing, stocks, mutual funds and other savings minus mortgages and other debts.

Black and Hispanic families reported large wealth gains, but wealth gaps along racial lines barely narrowed. Median wealth for an African-American family was $17,600 last year, up 29 percent from 2013. That’s a much bigger gain than the 17 percent increase for whites.

Yet median wealth for white families last year was $171,000, ten times that for blacks and roughly eight times that for Latinos.

Median wealth for the richest 10 percent of all families jumped 40 percent in the past three years to $1.63 million.