2020.1216.0002...

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Top 1% Of U.S. Households Hold 15 Times More Wealth Than Bottom 50% Combined

New data available from the U.S. Federal Reserve shows that the wealth gap in America has widened and economic inequality increased in 2020 amidst a coronavirus pandemic that has disproportionately impacted low-wage service workers and people of color, which coincides with a report published earlier this week showing that global billionaire wealth has concurrently skyrocketed at an unprecedented rate.

According to the latest Fed data, the top 1% of Americans have a combined net worth of $34.2 trillion (or 30.4% of all household wealth in the U.S.), while the bottom 50% of the population holds just $2.1 trillion combined (or 1.9% of all wealth).

A study published earlier this week by Swiss bank UBS and accounting firm PwC found that the total wealth of the world’s 2,189 billionaires soared to a record-setting high of $10.2 trillion in late July, obliterating the previous record of $8.9 trillion recorded at the end of 2017.

American billionaires have grown significantly richer during the pandemic, led by Elon Musk, who crossed the $100 billion benchmark in August to become the world’s fifth centibillionaire, and saw his wealth increase by 242% over the first eight months of 2020 (Jeff Bezos has added $65 billion to his net worth this year).

A critical factor in the explosion of wealth among a particular segment of the U.S. population has been access and exposure to the stock market.

The Fed estimates that the wealthiest 10% of Americans hold more than 88% of all available equity in corporations and mutual fund shares (with just the top 1% controlling more than twice as much equity as the bottom 50% of all Americans combined).