In Connecticut, it takes nearly $660,000 to get into the Top 1%.
But in New Mexico, you have to earn a mere $231,300 to get into the elite ranks.
Nationally, a family needs an income of just under $390,000. However, just what it means to be in the Top 1% varies considerably by state, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute, which used Internal Revenue Service data to calculate the threshold for households in each state. The figures are for 2013.
In a dozen states, families need even more to get into the Top 1%.
See how much it takes in different states on the map below.
Those in the Top 1% have done very well in recent decades. Their share of the nation’s income doubled to 20.1% between 1979 and 2013.
That has also made American more unequal. The Top 1% of households made 25.3 times as much as the bottom 99%. Back in 1979, that figure was 10.9.
Just how much better the Top 1% varies by state. New York is the most unequal, with the richest earning 45.4 times what the rest of the Empire State does, on average, according to EPI, a left-leaning research and advocacy group.
At the other end of the spectrum is Alaska, where the upper echelon earns only 13.2 times all other residents do.
