The United States' largest and most popular cities are also the centers of greatest income inequality, a new study published by the Brookings Institute reveals.
The researchers measured inequality in the cities using the "95/20 ratio" method over a five-year period (2007-2012), where 95 accounts for the income of a home that earns more than 95 percent of the neighborhood and 20 represents those households earning just 20 percent of what the neighborhood makes.
The study found that, at 10.8, the 95/20 ratio was higher across 50 of the largest U.S. cities when compared to the ratio - 9.1 - of the country as a whole.
Atlanta, San Francisco, Miami and Boston topped the list of the most "unequal" cities. In Atlanta, about 5 percent of the richest households earned more than $280,000, while 20 percent of the poorest earned less than $15,000, accounting for an 18.8 ratio. Similarly, in San Francisco, the richest earned more than $353,576 while the poorest earned less than $21,313, earning it a ratio of 16.6. Miami and Boston recorded a 15.7 and 15.3 inequality ratio, respectively, with Washington DC, New York City, Oakland and Chicago following close behind.
"There's something of a relationship between economic success and inequality. These cities are home to some of the highest-paying industries and jobs in the country," Alan Berube, author of the study, told the Associated Press.
The study highlighted that inequality rates showed a modest 0.8 percent change in the past five years, in addition to noting that in 2007, the rich became slightly poorer while the poor descended significantly further into poverty.
The 2007-08 property market crash and recession was the main cause for uneven wealth distribution across the cities, according to the report.
The results of the study come at a time when President Barack Obama continues to push for a minimum wage hike amid protests from Republicans, with a recent report compiled by Congressional Budget analysts revealing that the hike could cost the economy 500,000 jobs.
