"Income inequality has been widening for nearly three decades in the United States. Amidst a flurry of new data and media reports, President George W. Bush addressed the issue for the first time in January 2007 during remarks to Wall Street: “The fact is that income inequality is real—it’s been rising for more than 25 years. Between 1979 and 2004, the real after-tax income of the poorest one-fifth of Americans rose by 9 percent, that of the richest one-fifth by 69 percent, and that of the top 1 percent by 176 percent. Focusing on the familiar story of rising inequalities between CEOs and their employees yields figures that are perhaps even more striking. Between 1978 and 2005, CEO pay increased from 35 times to nearly 262 times the average worker’s pay. Said another way, by 2005, the typical CEO made more in an hour than a minimum-wage worker made in a month." http://economicmobility.org/reports_and_research/other?id=0003