Chicago’s Racial Wealth Gap Worse Than National Average

In this Tuesday, March 4, 2014, photo, Wal-Mart employee Richard Wilson, 27, is photographed outside the store where he works in Chicago. Wilson earns $9.25 an hour at that Wal-Mart and lives on the city’s western edge with his grandmother. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)
In this Tuesday, March 4, 2014, photo, Wal-Mart employee Richard Wilson, 27, is photographed outside the store where he works in Chicago. Wilson earns $9.25 an hour at that Wal-Mart and lives on the city’s western edge with his grandmother. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)
In this Tuesday, March 4, 2014, photo, Wal-Mart employee Richard Wilson, 27, is photographed outside the store where he works in Chicago. Wilson earns $9.25 an hour at that Wal-Mart and lives on the city’s western edge with his grandmother. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)
In this Tuesday, March 4, 2014, photo, Wal-Mart employee Richard Wilson, 27, is photographed outside the store where he works in Chicago. Wilson earns $9.25 an hour at that Wal-Mart and lives on the city’s western edge with his grandmother. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

Chicago’s Racial Wealth Gap Worse Than National Average

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CHICAGO (AP) — A nonprofit wealth-building organization says about 65 percent of African-American, Latino and Asian households in Chicago would be thrown into poverty within three months if the breadwinner losses their job.

A report by Washington-based Corporation for Enterprise Development asserts the divide between the incomes of white households and minority households is wider in Chicago than in the nation as a whole.

Dedrick Asante-Muhammad of CFED says the huge divide is due to Chicago’s white households being wealthier than the national average. He adds the city’s African-Americans are significantly less wealthy than the national average.

The median income of whites in Chicago is $70,960 compared with $56,373 for Asians, $41,188 for Latinos and $30,303 for blacks.

Asante-Muhammad notes white households have recovered more than minority households from the 2008-09 recession.