Study: Connecticut Tops List of States With High Earners While Mississippi Posts Most Low Earners

FOSTER CITY, Calif., March 30, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new study by personal finance website MoneyRates.com finds that when it comes to taxpayers with incomes of $1 million or more, Connecticut leads the country with 63 such high earners per 10,000 taxpayers, or 0.63 percent of its tax-paying population. On the other end of the scale, West Virginia posted the highest proportion of low earners – those earning less than $25,000 annually – with nearly half its population of taxpayers (48.6 percent) falling into this category.

The study, which examined 2013 tax returns across all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia for its income data, found that many states varied widely from the national averages for taxpayers with incomes of $1 million or more (0.25 percent of the group) and taxpayers with incomes of less than $25,000 (41 percent of the group).

Richard Barrington, CFA, senior financial analyst for MoneyRates.com and author of the study, says that it should come as no surprise that such concentrations of wealth and poverty exist in various parts of the country.

"Economics tend to be contagious," says Barrington. "Financial success tends to catch on in some areas, while hardship catches on in others."

Beyond the state divides, conditions seemed similar in some regions of the country. For instance, four of the top five states for high earners per capita are in the Northeast. Similarly, eight of the top 10 states for high proportions of low earners are clustered in the Southeast.

Florida was the only state to make the top 10 for both its proportion of high earners (0.31 percent) and its proportion of low earners (46.5 percent). Barrington says that makes Florida far different from many of the other states on the top-10 lists. For instance, the only state to post a higher proportion of poor people than Florida, Mississippi, was nowhere near the top 10 for its proportion of high earners. It stood second-to-last in that category, ahead of only West Virginia.

"Unfortunately, this makes Florida the poster child for income inequality," says Barrington. "Its earners are unusually heavily weighted at both ends, high and low. In most cases, we found that a concentration of high earners seemed to lift the state's income structure as a whole, because they tended not to be high on the list of low earners. Florida is different."

Here are the top 10 states for high earners per capita in the MoneyRates study:

1. Connecticut
2. District of Columbia
3. New York
4. Massachusetts
5. New Jersey
6. North Dakota
7. California
8. Texas
9. Florida
10. Illinois

Here are the top 10 states for low earners per capita in the MoneyRates study:

1. Mississippi
2. Florida
3. New Mexico
4. Arkansas
5. Georgia
6. Alabama
7. South Carolina
8. Tennessee
9. Louisiana
10. Michigan

For more details on the study, please see http://www.money-rates.com/research-center/high-low-earners-by-state.htm.

About MoneyRates.com

MoneyRates.com has been a leading source of information on bank rates, personal finance, savings accounts and investing since 1999. The site seeks to provide the highest rates on CDs, money market accounts and high-yield savings accounts. MoneyRates.com is owned and operated by QuinStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ: QNST), one of the largest Internet marketing and media companies in the world. QuinStreet is committed to providing consumers and businesses with the information they need to find, research and select the products, services and brands that best meet their needs. The company is a leader in visitor-friendly marketing practices. For more information, please visit QuinStreet.com.