Article Ann Huff Stevens

Income gap growing in California’s poorest regions
Director Ann Huff Stevens quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle, August 14, 2016

Where in California has the gap between rich and poor grown most since the recession? The Bay Area, home of some of the most expensive ZIP codes in the country, seems like a logical answer.

But according to research from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, income inequality in the Bay Area has worsened only marginally, at least compared with other parts of the state. In 2007, Bay Area households at the top 10 percent of incomes made about 10.6 times what households at the bottom 10 percent of incomes brought home. By 2014, they made about 11.6 times as much.

“When you’re talking incomes that low, you’re likely talking about people who work in agriculture and who really have highly variable incomes because they’re not at a traditional job,” said Ann Stevens, director of the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research. “Or they may be doing temporary work or field work, or running a small agricultural business.”

Read the full article at the San Francisco Chronicle.