Study: Connecticut Tops List of States With High Earners While Mississippi Posts Most Low Earners
31 March 2015 - 12:11AM
A new study by personal finance website MoneyRates.com finds that
when it comes to taxpayers with incomes of $1 million or more,
Connecticut leads the country with 63 such high earners per 10,000
taxpayers, or 0.63 percent of its tax-paying population. On the
other end of the scale, West Virginia posted the highest proportion
of low earners – those earning less than $25,000 annually – with
nearly half its population of taxpayers (48.6 percent) falling into
this category.
The study, which examined 2013 tax returns across all 50 U.S.
states and the District of Columbia for its income data, found that
many states varied widely from the national averages for taxpayers
with incomes of $1 million or more (0.25 percent of the group) and
taxpayers with incomes of less than $25,000 (41 percent of the
group).
Richard Barrington, CFA, senior financial analyst for
MoneyRates.com and author of the study, says that it should come as
no surprise that such concentrations of wealth and poverty exist in
various parts of the country.
"Economics tend to be contagious," says Barrington. "Financial
success tends to catch on in some areas, while hardship catches on
in others."
Beyond the state divides, conditions seemed similar in some
regions of the country. For instance, four of the top five states
for high earners per capita are in the Northeast. Similarly, eight
of the top 10 states for high proportions of low earners are
clustered in the Southeast.
Florida was the only state to make the top 10 for both its
proportion of high earners (0.31 percent) and its proportion of low
earners (46.5 percent). Barrington says that makes Florida far
different from many of the other states on the top-10 lists. For
instance, the only state to post a higher proportion of poor people
than Florida, Mississippi, was nowhere near the top 10 for its
proportion of high earners. It stood second-to-last in that
category, ahead of only West Virginia.
"Unfortunately, this makes Florida the poster child for income
inequality," says Barrington. "Its earners are unusually heavily
weighted at both ends, high and low. In most cases, we found that a
concentration of high earners seemed to lift the state's income
structure as a whole, because they tended not to be high on the
list of low earners. Florida is different."
Here are the top 10 states for high earners per capita in the
MoneyRates study:
- Connecticut
- District of Columbia
- New York
- Massachusetts
- New Jersey
- North Dakota
- California
- Texas
- Florida
- Illinois
Here are the top 10 states for low earners per capita in the
MoneyRates study:
- Mississippi
- Florida
- New Mexico
- Arkansas
- Georgia
- Alabama
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Louisiana
- Michigan
For more details on the study, please see
http://www.money-rates.com/research-center/high-low-earners-by-state.htm.
About MoneyRates.com
MoneyRates.com has been a leading source of information on bank
rates, personal finance, savings accounts and investing since 1999.
The site seeks to provide the highest rates on CDs, money market
accounts and high-yield savings accounts. MoneyRates.com is owned
and operated by QuinStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ: QNST), one of the largest
Internet marketing and media companies in the world. QuinStreet is
committed to providing consumers and businesses with the
information they need to find, research and select the products,
services and brands that best meet their needs. The company is a
leader in visitor-friendly marketing practices. For more
information, please visit QuinStreet.com.
CONTACT: Alex H. Bryant
212-863-4753
abryant@quinstreet.com
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