The above
chart put together by Chuck Marr at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities is based on data from the Congressional Budget Office. It shows just how dramatic the increase in income inequality has been over the past three-plus decades.
The income of the most affluent Americans grew at a far higher rate than for everyone else between 1979 and 2010, which is the most recent year in which full data are available.
The average middle-income family had $9,500 less after-tax income in 2010, and the average household in the top one percent had $481,800 more than if all groups’ incomes had grown at the same rate since 1979.