Age Explains Much of Income Inequality

Income position shifts dramatically over a working life: the average American taxpayer moves from about the 20th percentile at ages 18–25 to roughly the 75th percentile at ages 55–64. That lifecycle movement means cross‑sectional measures of inequality can conflate age structure with persistent economic unfairness. — If age accounts for a large share of measured inequality, policy debates that focus narrowly on race, gender, or education risk misdiagnosing the problem and misdirecting remedies.