Florida ranks fifth for income inequality in the country, according to a study recently published by the Economic Policy Institute.
It looks at the gap between what the top 1 percent and what the bottom 99 percent make nationwide.
Florida’s top earners take home almost 35 times as much money as the rest.
Economist Mark Price helped write the report. Price said one reason Florida has so much income inequality is because wealthy people want to live here.
He also said wages are not growing in the years following the Great Recession.
“That has helped contribute a lot to the desperation that workers face,” he said. “They may find jobs; they’re just not likely to see their wages rise a lot over time.”
Price said raising the minimum wage to correspond with increasing prices is one way to help reduce income inequality.
The Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island area is the third most unequal region in the country. The top 1 percent makes about 73 times more than the bottom 99 percent there.
