The richest 1% of households in the United States have accumulated almost 1,000 times more wealth than the poorest 20% over the last three and a half decades, and economic inequality is getting worse at a rapid pace, new research shows.
The analysis, published by Oxfam on Monday, found that between 1989 and 2022, a household in the top 0.1% gained an average of $39.5 million in wealth, while a top 1% household gained $8.35 million. By contrast, a bottom 20%-household gained less than $8,500 during the same period.
Over the past year alone, Oxfam noted, the wealth of the 10 richest U.S. billionaires soared by $698 billion. That means that the top 0.1%’s share of total wealth is now at a record high of 12.6%.
“The data confirms what people across our nation already know instinctively: the new American oligarchy is here,” said Abby Maxman, president and CEO of Oxfam America. “Billionaires and mega-corporations are booming while working families struggle to afford housing, healthcare, and groceries.”
Historic Discrimination
The publication of Oxfam’s report comes almost exactly a year after President Donald Trump entered office for a second term, and, according to the report, his administration has been instrumental in pursuing policies that could deepen the country’s already vast wealth divides.
Oxfam projects, for example, that in 2027 President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will reduce the tax bill of the highest-earning 0.1% by $311,000, while simultaneously increasing taxes on the lowest-income households—or those earning less than $15,000 annually.
But the forces that have catalyzed inequality are not new. Indeed, according to the report, inequality has been shaped by historic and ongoing discrimination based on race and gender. Between 1989 and 2022, the report shows, the wealth of the average White household grew by 7.2 times more than the wealth of the average Black household, and 6.7 times more than that of the average Hispanic household. The average male-headed household, meanwhile, gained four times the wealth of the average female-headed household.
“Today, we are seeing the dark extremes of choosing inequality for 50 years,” wrote Elizabeth Wilkins, president and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute, a think tank, in the report’s foreword. “The policy priorities in this report—rebalancing power, unrigging the tax code, reimagining the social safety net, and supporting workers’ rights—are all essential to creating that more inclusive and cohesive society,” she added. “Together, they speak to our deepest needs as human beings: to live with security and agency, to live free from exploitation.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, who also provided a foreword, noted that today, “a minimum wage job won’t keep a mother and baby out of poverty” and “it won’t pay rent on a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in this country.”
“After World War II, we built an economy where workers shared in the bounty they helped create. Then we changed course,” Warren added. “The result is an economy that works great for those at the very top and leaves everyone else hanging on by their fingernails.”
The latest Oxfam analysis mirrors other recent research showing the extent to which U.S. income inequality has worsened in recent decades—and is worsening today. In February, research published by the RAND Corporation found a rapid widening in wealth gaps between 1975 and 2023. In 2024, analysis by the Economic Policy Institute found that the wages of the top 1% had risen by 182% since 1979 while those of the bottom 90% had grown by just 44%.