When you think about the richest 1%, you probably imagine a silver-haired Wall Street tycoon sipping a martini on a yacht. But, what about the millennial 1%? Fusion created the Wealth Gap Calculator to draw attention to the fact that income inequality exists at every age — and the results are eye-opening.
To be part of the top percentile of millennials, you'd need to bring in roughly $129,000 a year. Only approximately 720,000 young adults can claim that. These "haves" earn about double the combined income of the bottom 20%, which contains some 14 million millennials. If you make $60,000 a year, you're in the top 10%. The calculator is based on income data from the Current Population Survey’s March 2014 supplement for all 18- to 34-year-olds in the U.S.
Of the lofty 1%, just 28% are female. Only 9% are Black and 7% Hispanic, while the majority is white and male. Meanwhile, about 28 million millennials take home less than $10,000 a year and aren't enrolled in school, which makes it more likely their earnings will stay flat. That leaves a lot of room for the college-educated young adults to climb up the wealth ladder — creating an income divide in young adulthood that's likely to persist.
This story was originally published on February 3, 2015.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT