Study Finds Widening Gap Between Rich, Poor

The gap between rich and poor in Los Angeles County is increasing, with African Americans and Latinos, especially women, being hardest hit by the mounting inequality, according to a study released Thursday by national researchers.

More than 40% of county residents spend one-third of their income on rent--a figure that underscores the hardship that high property values place on the region’s poorest residents, according to the study by researchers from universities including UCLA, Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Other findings include:

* The gap between the top and bottom 10% of California wage-earners has widened. In 1967, for every $4 earned by someone in the top 10%, a person in the bottom category made $1. Today the ratio is almost 10 to 1.

* New jobs, largely located in suburbs, are more difficult for the poor to find and then get to because of the lack of adequate public transportation in farther-flung areas.

* Poor women, particularly minorities, are often hardest hit by these patterns because they bear the added burden of arranging and paying for child care.

The data were released at the start of a two-day conference at UCLA on inequality in Los Angeles. The event coincides with the publication of the study on the county’s economic and racial challenges. The conference continues through tonight and is open to the public.

“We view this volume as a note that we shouldn’t be complacent during a period of prosperity,” said Lawrence D. Bobo, a Harvard sociologist and an author of the study. “We still have a society that allows African Americans, Latinos and some segments of the Asian population to fare poorly or live only at the margins.”

He added, “We view this book not so much as a wake-up call but a recurring notice of problems” in Los Angeles.

The study was commissioned by the Ford and Russell Sage foundations to examine urban inequality in several American cities, including Atlanta, Boston and Detroit.

Researchers did their most extensive investigation in Los Angeles because the city is seen as a predictor of national race, ethnic and class patterns, the authors said.

They interviewed more than 4,000 adults in the county on issues ranging from workplace discrimination to commuting times, from public assistance history to child-care opportunities. The interviews were conducted in Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean or English.

The authors noted that the patterns of inequality detailed in their 600-plus page book come despite decades-long federal efforts--such as the War on Poverty and the Great Society program--to improve opportunities for the poorest Americans.

“If you ask where all this could be heading [if the patterns go unchanged],” said Jim Johnson, a business professor at North Carolina, “in the event of an economic downturn, we could see another 1992 civil unrest.”

One of the study’s most unexpected results, Johnson said, was the finding that young white men, particularly those with criminal records and lack of education, increasingly face barriers to employment similar to those of young black and Latino men.

Such persistent unemployment has wider effects. Studies increasingly link the nation’s drop in crime in recent years to low unemployment, said William Julius Wilson, a Harvard professor who spoke at the conference.

But the federal funds that once helped cities provide jobs have largely dried up, Wilson said. In 1980, the federal government contributed 18% of cities’ budgets, but in 1990 that figure was 6%, he said.

Said Johnson, “If you’ve listened to the presidential debates, you hear very little about cities.”