There will always be some people who make more than their neighbors, but when wage growth is concentrated at the top, many lower income families will never get the boost they need to put a down payment on a house, send their kids to college, or start a business. That is why it is concerning that Arkansas and the nation as a whole have experienced steadily growing income inequality over the past several decades.

In a new paper published by EPI for the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN), researchers analyze the difference in incomes between the top 1 percent and the bottom 99 percent by geographic area. Their research reveals that Arkansas is experiencing historic levels of income inequality. In every year since 2007, the share of income going to the top one percent has been greater than 17 percent. Income inequality hasn’t come close to that alarming range since 1941, when it peaked at 18 percent. Recent levels of income inequality are roughly twice what they were in the late 1970s, when the top 1 percent only took in about 10 percent of total income.

The ups and downs of the economy have simply been much kinder to those who were already very wealthy. Wealthy people’s wages are more insulated from economic downturns, and they benefit more from economic expansions. From 1979 to 2013, over half of all income growth was handed to the top 1 percent. That means that for every dollar increase in wages across Arkansas, about half went to the top one percent. The economy grew, but the vast majority of Arkansans were left dividing up the scraps.

Income inequality shifts power, stability, and opportunity away from everyday people and toward a select elite. It is up to our legislators to pass laws that help all families build assets and wealth. A state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is one common sense approach to fighting growing income inequality in Arkansas. EITCs help working families keep more of what they earn, and are a proven poverty fighting tool that about half of the rest of the states already use.

Other key findings from the study include:

• The top 1 percent in Arkansas saw their incomes rise 10 times faster than the rest of the population since 1979.
• The average annual income of the top 1 percent in Arkansas was $750,000. To be in the top 1 in our state, you have to earn at least $237,000 a year.
• The average annual income of everyone else in Arkansas is $36,000 a year.
• Someone in the top 1 percent in Arkansas takes home 20 times more than the typical Arkansan (in the bottom 99 percent).
• The most unequal part of Arkansas is the Benton County area, where the top 1 percent makes about $2.5 million a year (or 43 times the average annual pay of everyone else).
• Arkansas ranks 17^th among the 50 states in income inequality.

A series of accompanying fact sheets detail income inequality by state.