Glancing through these graphs, you can see a difference in median income for different races. At the same time, we have to consider at least two important variables namely, educational attainment and geographic location. Let us take the case of California. Asian Americans account for 14% out of 37 million residents (approx. 5 million) in California. The cost of living in a place such as, San Jose is 1.4 times more than Atlanta, GA, which has a median income of around $55000 (more than the median income for the country). Please note that this factor applies for other minorities too. Source: Cost of living calculator - http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/ | Further, we need to take into account factors such as: Without knowing this information, we should be reluctant to draw any race based conclusions on wealth/income disparity (this note is mainly for individuals with hidden agendas). It is also the reason that we need to understand wealth gap and gini indexes across the world. So far, we certainly see education being an important factor to impact real median income among different races, and can help in reducing the gap between races. However, the wealth gap and the median income dispersion appears to be widening, which resulted in various analyses that I had presented before in, "What do you think" section. It is also the reason that we, the people, should work together to educate ourselves in different areas, reduce our differences by accepting our differences, and make the country and the world a better place for our children. Other variables to consider: Effective tax rate, Tax benefits, Educational debt, Cumulative lifetime earnings to name a few. |