To be in the top 1 percent of earners in the United States in 2015, a family would have to have brought in $421,926 in pre-tax dollars. What qualifies as the top 1 percent varies by each state, and the states with the highest thresholds are California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
Nationwide, the average income of the bottom 99 percent is $50,107 per family. This also varies depending on geography.
By looking at income data on the state and county level, it’s possible to get a more local picture of the trend of inequality.
When inequality came up, “often the conversation would turn to, well, that’s New York City, it’s not my state,” said Mark Price, a labor economist at the Keystone Research Center and co-author of the EPI paper.
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