The NY Times has a couple of interesting articles on what constitutes being in the top 1% of wealth in the U.S. (it is also conditioned on local context) and which careers/jobs are likely to have more/less 1%-er. For an interesting graphic, see: http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/newsgraphics/2012/0115-one-percent-occupations/index.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1
Teachers are along the top, about 2/3 of the way from the left margin. Note that there is a large rectangle for all teachers and then smaller rectangles for subgroups within it. If you scroll over "colleges and universities" a little window will pop up informing one that 31.672 members of this category are in the top 1% or 1.8% of all members. The designation of being in the 1% can use either "absolute" criteria (i.e., all people are evaluated with the same criteria) or "relative" criteria (i.e., top 1% is defined by the local groups income distribution; see below). The NY Times uses relative criteria and reviews the diversity of the members of the 1%; see: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/business/the-1-percent-paint-a-more-nuanced-portrait-of-the-rich.html?_r=1&ref=business&pagewanted=all Consider this description: |Most 1 percenters were born with socioeconomic advantages, |which helps explain why the 1 percent is more likely than other |Americans to have jobs, according to census data. They work |longer hours, being three times more likely than the 99 percent |to work more than 50 hours a week, and are more likely to be |self-employed. Married 1 percenters are just as likely as other |couples to have two incomes, but men are the big breadwinners, |earning 75 percent of the money, compared with 64 percent of |the income in other households. But, a person who is a 1%-er in one location might not be a 1%-er elsewhere as shown in this quote: |Financial benchmarks in this area can differ radically from those in places where more people are struggling to put food |on the table. Many of [NY] Nassau’s affluent families think of |themselves as practically middle class, saying that property |values and taxes are so high that $380,000 does not go very far. | |“On Long Island, it’s barely a living,” said Steven R. Schlesinger, |a lawyer and professional poker player. “In Plano, it’s a living.” | |There is something to that. Aspen’s 1 percent is very different |from Akron’s. In some areas there are so many 1 percenters |that the whole income hierarchy can shift. It may take $380,000 |to be in the national 1 percent, but it takes $900,000 to be among |the top 1 percent of earners in Stamford, Conn. Compared with that, |the price of admission to the 1 percent in Clarksville, Tenn., is |a bargain at $200,000. Of course, the cutoff is only one measure, |and perhaps not the most telling one. The average income of |the 1 percent, according to the Tax Policy Center, is $1.5 million, | and the superrich — the 120,000 tax filers that make up the top |tenth of this group — earned an estimated average of $6.8 million |in 2011. One notorious problem of attracting good faculty to NYC area colleges is that a well-paid professor elsewhere in the U.S. might not make enough to maintain their lifestyle here, even with a raise in salary and other considerations. Another way of looking at the 1%-ers is with the "Brandeis ratio", that is the ratio of the median income of the top 1% to the median income household income. In the 1980s it was around 12.5 while in 2006 it was 36 -- a sign of growing income inequality. For more on this topic, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/opinion/dont-tax-the-rich-tax-inequality-itself.html?src=me&ref=general One wonders what the Brandeis ratio is for college professors. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=15327 or send a blank email to leave-15327-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
