Gap Between Oregon Rich and Poor Reaches 20 Year High

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Friday, November 28, 2014

Taya Alami, GoLocalPDX Reporter

Wages in Oregon have become more disparate in the past 20 years, with the high-wage earners earning more and low-wage earners earning less, according to a report released by the State Employment Department.

The median wage for the highest 1 percent of wage earners increased approximately 30 percent in the past 20 years, the report stated.

The trend is likely to continue in the near future, according to the State Employment Department’s Nic Beleiciks.

“This isn’t a unique trend to Oregon. It’s a national trend, and probably a global trend,” Beleiciks said. 

It’s not that the lower wage earners are learning less, they’re actually earning more, just a smaller slice of the overall wage pie.

It could be worse, Belieciks said.  Oregon's inflation-adjusted minimum wage — among the highest in the nation — had made the gap between low and high wage earners at least a little smaller.

A study by The Hamilton Group made note of the “ripple effect—” the concept that when the minimum wage is increased, many workers earning slightly more than minimum wage will see their wages increase as well.

Wages for low-income earners have increased, just not as much as the high-income earners, which have increased at a much more substantial rate, Beleiciks said.

“Some of these high wage earners could be folks like doctors, upper management, leaders of companies — people who have skills that not everyone can do,” Beleiciks said.

“The middle wage earners also aren’t seeing any increase," Beleiciks said. "This has to do with a changing occupational structure of our economy. There are plenty of jobs in the middle not seeing a lot of growth.”

The stagnation of mid-level earners can be attributed to automation and globalization, according to Beleiciks.

“Trade jobs that were filled by middle-skilled workers have been the easiest jobs to replace by computer technology or outsourcing overseas,” Beleiciks said.

The Oregon Employment Department report was based off of the state’s full time, year round workers. Approximately two-thirds of the state’s workers work the whole years; of these, approximately one-third works full-time.

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