Income Gap Growing in Sonoma County

[Sara S]

Income gap growing in Sonoma County
MARTIN ESPINOZA~ THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | February 22, 2016, 5:27PM

The gap between the wealthiest people in Sonoma County and everyone else is not only vast but also has widened significantly over the past quarter-century, according to a new report.

The top 1 percent of households in Sonoma County saw their average annual income rise 40.8 percent between 1989 and 2013, while the remaining 99 percent of households saw their average incomes decline 10.4 percent during the same period, according to the report by the California Budget and Policy Center, a Sacramento think tank.

“It’s still a pretty dramatic increase in income for the top 1 percent, while you have decreases in the incomes of everyone else,” said Chris Hoene, executive director of the center, which seeks to improve the economic and social well-being of low- and middle-income Californians.

In Sonoma County, the top 1 percent earned an average income of $913,522, almost 20 times more than the average income of everyone else, or $45,794. The gap was the 13th largest among the 33 California regions examined in the report.

Income disparity has become a significant issue in the Democratic presidential debates, where Sen. Bernie Sanders has gained momentum by attacking the wage gap and accumulation of wealth by the richest Americans.

Nearly 17 percent of the county’s total income was funneled to the top 1 percent of households in 2013, up from 11.4 percent of the county’s total income in 1989, according to the center’s report.

Hoene said such trends in widening income gaps can become an obstacle to future economic growth. He said economic growth that is more broadly shared, where people across all income levels experience gains to some degree, are a better harbinger of future growth.

Sonoma County, however, saw average incomes decline for the bottom 99 percent of households.

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