Los Angeles is the nation's wealth and poverty capital with more people in the highest and lowest income brackets of any city in the country. The top 50 wealthiest Angelenos' combined net worth is $60 billion, more than the bottom 2 million people combined. In addition, L.A. has one of the nation's smallest middle-classes.
The trends we see here in Los Angeles are mirrored throughout the country. Not since the 1920s has the country seen such economic disparity. This economic gulf has developed dramatically in the last 20+ years. 
The face of poverty has also changed. Many, many Angelenos who live in poverty hold full-time jobs, even two or three jobs. California minimum wage is $8 or a little less than $16,640 annually. Although the state minimum wage has been raised in the last few years – thanks to Liberty Hill partners making that happen! - the situation for minimum wage workers is still dire. According to the Economic Policy Institute, most Los Angeles family budget estimates indicate that a family of four needs about $45,000 a year in order to pay their basic expenses. Nearly half of all city of L.A. households live on less than that.
As part of Blog Action Day, thousands of blogs are exposing poverty in the United States. For more information about poverty in L.A. see Liberty Hill’s partner Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. Their research over the last decade has set the gold standard on local poverty.
