Income Inequality Highest in Jackson

Income inequality in the United States continues to grow, and the place in the country that has the most income inequality is right here in Wyoming.
According to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute, the most unequal metro in the U.S. happens to be in Jackson, and the region that expands to the Idaho border. There, the 1 percent earn an astonishing 132 times more than everyone else.
That’s not to say the bottom 99 percent aren’t faring well in this area – the average income in Jackson is just over $122 thousand dollars, which is more than double the average income of the bottom 99 percent nationwide, at just over $50,000. The Economic Policy Institute says the gap is so huge because the one-percenters in Jackson earn an average of $16.2 million.
Jackson is home to the luxurious Jackson Hole ski resort and includes Teton County, which is by far the most unequal county in the U.S. The average annual income of the wealthiest 1 percent of the residents of Teton County — a group that includes Dick Cheney and Wal-Mart heiress Christy Walton — is more than $22 million.
The EPI used the latest available data to analyze how the top 1 percent and everyone else across the U.S. have fared between 1917 and 2015.