Miami Has the Second-Highest Income Inequality of Any U.S. Metro Area

By Kyle Munzenrieder Thu., Oct. 27 2011 at 4:18 PM

At the heart of the Occupy Wall Street movement is disgust over the well-documented increase of income inequality in America over the past few decades and the slow disappearance of a robust middle class. While New York City is certainly an apt place for the center of those protests, Miami certainly can empathize. The Miami metro area has the second-greatest gap between the haves and have-nots, according to a new U.S. Census report, only behind NYC.

Los Angeles, Houston and Memphis round out the top five. Read the full report in PDF form here.

The report uses "the Gini index of household income inequality ... (which) ranges from 0.0, when all households have equal shares of income, to 1.0, when one household has all the income and the rest none)."

The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach metro are has a Gini index of 0.493. The nationwide Gini index is 0.467.

Within the city limits of Miami, the inequality picture is even more grim. The City of Miami has a Gini index of 0.540, which ties it for third place with Washington D.C. for the third highest income inequality in the nation.

Only Atlanta and New Orleans have higher income inequality. Interestingly Gainesville is fifth, while Ft. Lauderdale is eighth with a Gini index of 0.534.

On the state level, Florida comes in ninth on the Gini index, but the report uses other indicators to measure state-wide inequality.

"There was only one state where the different income inequality measures tell a confused story, as indicated by a difference in ranking of at least 10 places. Florida was ranked ninth by the Gini index with greater income inequality than the U.S. Gini (0.469 versus 0.467); it was however ranked twenty- seventh by the P90/10 index, and twenty-third by the P95/20 index, with both the latter two indexes showing lower income inequality than for the United States as a whole. This suggests that the extremes of income are not as prevalent in Florida as in the other states," says the report.

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Jco

the income gap is not the issue. if someone earns their money then god bless. the problem is the disgusting way government employees get raises regardless of the market conditions they get benefits that no one could possibly justify in the market. politicians just give themselves raises whenever they choose. all of those salaries are disgustingly above free market value. there's 10 employees doing the work that would require just 1 employee anywhere else. the thieving big banks all lost their ass in the free market and our corrupt government just gave them trillions that we are going to pay for. the income gap has never been the issue, rather the fact that we the free market businesses are getting robbed blind

Sir Sausage

Maybe you can bring up your points in a post about how government is inefficient. Your ramblings totally miss the point

ZawRoo

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Watchingfrogs Boil

I AM NOT ANONYMOUS. I AM AN AMERICAN.

I am not just a Consumer. I am a Citizen.

I will no longer be labeled Left or Right, Liberal or Conservative, Demopublican or Republocrat.

I will no longer follow Puppets labeled Left or Right, Liberal or Conservative, Demopublican or Republocrat.

I am the People. And I am coming for the Puppetmasters.

I am part of the 99 Percent. And I demand the following:

1. End the Fed.2. Reverse Citizens United. 3. Repeal PATRIOT Act. 4. Expose 9/11 Truth. 5. End Profit Wars. 6. Refund Taxpayer Trillions. 7. Imprison the Kleptocrats. 8. Single Term Limits.

Or, if these demands are not addressed promptly:

1. Regime Change.

Sir Sausage

Lolz "expose 9/11 truth." I see at least one truther has joined some of the other tinfoil hat members in the OWS movement. What's your take on the whole thing? Guided missiles? Radio controlled planes? Controlled demolition?

Wait, you were just joking about that.... right?