opinion

Nashville narrows gap between poor and rich

Income inequality is top of mind for many politicians, especially Democrats, as they worry that our economic recovery from the 2008 recession benefits rich Americans disproportionally.

President Barack Obama made income inequality the centerpiece of his State of the Union address on Jan. 20, and in the Nashville mayoral race, affordable housing tops many lists of most important issues facing Metro.

The gap between the community’s rich households and its poor ones is important. It is hard to imagine that cities will sustain success if they are not attractive to a broad range of income levels.

So it was interesting to read an update from the Brookings Institution evaluating the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data on income disparity and growth in the largest 50 cities.

The report starts with a blinding glimpse of the obvious — cities have more income disparity than the rest of the country — but the gap is illuminating.

The Brookings study compared the income of households that make more than 95 percent of all the households in a city to households that make more than 20 percent of the households.

On average, those at the 95th percentile of income earn 11.6 times more than those at the 20th percentile, compared with a differential of 9.3 times across the rest the country. But the census data also show that incomes, at the top and bottom, are growing faster in the top 50 cities than in the rest of the country.

Nashville narrows gap

Nashville was one of four cities that saw a decline in the differential between rich and poor (the others were Oklahoma City, Milwaukee and Kansas City, Mo.).

In 2013, the 95th percentile earned 7.9 times more than the 20th percentile, down from 9 times more in 2012. That decline was primarily due to a 14.3 percent increase in income, to $21,393, for those in the lowest 20 percent — the third-best growth rate among cities, trailing only Jacksonville, Fla., and San Francisco.

Income grew by $1,889 for the 95th percent group to an average of $169,581 in 2013. The slight 1.1 percent growth in income over 2012 leaves Nashville’s 95 percenters down $9,321, or a little more than 5 percent, from pre-recession income levels in 2007. Incomes at the 20th percentile were 6.1 percent below 2007 in 2013.

Nashville ranked sixth among the 50 cities in income disparity. Virginia Beach, Va., which has the highest 20 percent income level, $32,051, has the least disparity, 6.2 times more income for 95th percentile households.

Economic growth?

It is great that Nashville narrowed the gap between poorer and richer households in 2013, and, certainly, incomes have improved more in the past two years. But we continue to have a long way to go in getting back to the economic levels before the recession.

It is great that we talk about affordable housing, transit and education in our mayoral race debates and conversations, but perhaps we need to spend more energy on our plans to attract jobs that will help further the economic recovery and vitality in Nashville.

Reach Frank Daniels III at 615-881-7039 and on Twitter @fdanielsiii.