Income Inequality Between Top 1% and Rest of Working West Virginians Among Nation's Highest

A recent study says income inequality between the top 1% of West Virginia’s wealthiest and rest of working West Virginians is among the highest in the nation.

While the West Virginia legislature considers increasing the state’s minimum wage, a new report shows  the state’s top 1% of income earners captured over half of all West Virginia’s income growth between 1979 and 2007.

The report was released Wednesday by the Economic Policy Institute.  Titled The Increasingly Unequal States of America: Income Inequality by State, it says West Virginia has a lopsided economy where the top 1% average income is almost 20 times greater than the average income of the bottom 99%.

West Virginia joins 14 other states where the top 1 percent captured between half and 84 percent of all income growth between 1979 and 2007.