US Update: Rich’s Paycheck Getting Fatter, Poor Getting Lesser Pay

By Jose de la Cruz | Mar 14, 2016 06:54 AM EDT

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America's middle class is getting furious. They have surveyed the country's economy and have seen that most of the riches are being sequestered by the moneyed few, while they and the working class are being paid less and less.

According to a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, those in the top 5 percent of the nation's income bracket saw their wages jump to 15 percent from 2007 to 2015. However, the 70 percent who are languishing at the bottom did not have any considerable wage increases during the last 8 years.

"It's no surprise that typical workers are frustrated with the economy since wage growth has been slow for so long," said Elise Gould, author of the report and also a senior economist at EPI.

A more practical way of looking at EPI's findings is that the rich are able to make around $9 more per hour than they did in 2007. However, those at the bottom, around two-thirds of able-bodied men, are only able to make considerably less per hour.

This economic disparity was also the subject of a report in December 2015. That report clearly stated that the middle class no longer dominates the economy of the United States.

The report said that the country is now comprised of less than half of middle class Americans, or about 49.9 percent, which was down from 61 percent in 1971. A middle class household is defined as one which earns from two-thirds to two times the country's median salary which ranges between $41,900 and $125,000.

This sector has for decades, been the country's economic core. Economic experts and politicians believe that a healthy middle class makes the country strong.

In an apparent move to bolster the position of this sector, presidential candidates on both sides of the fence, have promised to introduce measures that will strengthen the American middle class and to increase their opportunities to increase their income.

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