![This is life on $7.50 an hour](https://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/150902143405-single-mom-outside-1024x576.jpg)
America's wealth gap is getting even bigger.
While wages for low- and middle-income workers have begun to recover, wealth inequality has still climbed to new heights, according to a new survey from the Federal Reserve which conducts a checkup of the nation's finances every three years.
In 2016, median household net worth improved across all income brackets -- up 16% overall since 2013 -- but those on the higher end of the income spectrum did the best. The top 10% of earners saw their household net worth increase 40% over the three-year period, according to the Fed.
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That has increased the nation's already large economic divide.
Here's one way of understanding the difference that makes. The median upper-income family (those who make more than $127,600) now holds 75 times the wealth of the median low-income family (those who make less than $42,500), according to an analysis of the data by the Pew Research Center. In 2007, top earners were worth 40 times as much. In 1989, the multiple was 28.
![wealth gap wider than ever](https://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/171103080726-wealth-gap-wider-than-ever-780x439.jpg)
In real terms, families in that upper-income bracket are now worth $810,800, up about $70,000 since the eve of the recession in 2007 — an increase fueled in part by rising real estate prices and the stock market, in which more wealthier people can afford to invest. The median lower-income family now has $10,800 in assets, which is down almost $8,000 since 2007, Pew found.
![wealthier households have recovered](https://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/171103153232-wealthier-households-have-recovered-780x439.jpg)
Here's another way of understanding it: The Top 1% now holds 38.6% of the nation's wealth, up from 33.7% in 2007. The bottom 90% now holds only 22.8% of the nation's total wealth, down from 28.5% in 2007.
There are also differences within those income brackets. Low-income white people have seen their wealth nearly cut in half since the recession, while the net worth of black and Hispanic families who make a similar amount of money remained basically stable.
![chart low income wealth gap shrinking](https://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/171103125946-chart-low-income-wealth-gap-shrinking-780x439.jpg)
Although the overall disparity in assets between white people and non-white people remains enormous — the median white family is worth nearly ten times as much as the median black family and about 8 times as much as the median Hispanic family — the recession has narrowed that gap among lower-income earners.