Income Inequality Below Average in Oklahoma

• Joe Wertz
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  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

There’s been a lot of national press concerning the recently released “rich-getting-richer” report, a Congressional Budget Office analysis showing incomes for the highest-income households grew more than any other group’s.

The after-tax income of the wealthiest 1 percent nearly tripled from 1979-2007. The 60 percent in the middle saw their incomes increase by about 40 percent, according to the CBO analysis.

But when it comes to income inequality, Oklahoma and most other states are below average, the Oklahoman’s Chris Casteel reports from D.C., citing a separate report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The census report says the income inequality rate in the Oklahoma City metro area was roughly the same as the U.S. rate, while the rate was lower in most metro areas with more than one million people.

Oklahomans with adjusted gross incomes above $200,000 comprised about 2 percent of total returns in the state but made up 21 percent of total adjusted gross income, Casteel wrote, examining IRS figures for 2009.