New Jersey has some of the highest income inequality in the country according to latest U.S. Census figures, a troubling indicator of the state’s shrinking middle class, according to experts.
“When you have rising inequalities, state and national governments tend to invest less equitably in public services like schools that promote success for the whole community, so it can be a harmful cycle and harmful even sometimes for the wealthy,” said Arloc Sherman, vice president of data analysis and research at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan think tank.
Income levels previously had been more evenly distributed, but the middle class has been on a steady 50-year decline, according to a study published last year by the Pew Center.