Benefits of economic growth finally reaching low-wage workers

Eight years after the Great Recession officially ended, the fruits of economic growth are finally spreading to low-wage workers, racial and ethnic minorities and other groups that were largely left out of the early stages of the recovery.

But in a pattern that has become familiar in recent decades, the biggest gains continued to flow to the richest Americans.

The typical American family had a net worth of $97,300 in 2016, up 16 percent from 2013 after adjusting for inflation, according to data released by the Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday. The gains were broad-based, cutting across racial, educational and economic categories — a significant shift from the years immediately after the recession, when both income and wealth continued to decline for many families.

But despite the gains, wealth also become more concentrated:

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• The richest 1 percent of households controlled 38.6 percent of total wealth in 2016, up from 36.3 percent in 2013.

• The bottom 90 percent of households controlled 22.8 percent of all wealth.

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https://www.seattletimes.com/business/benefits-of-economic-growth-finally-reaching-low-wage-workers/