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If you give $25 or more, we’ll send you this FREE Title IX tote.
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The tax code increasingly rewards extreme wealth, shields it from taxation, and allows it to grow larger across generations. Because of the preferential rates and loopholes available to the very wealthy, the current tax system (while progressive overall) enables enormous amounts of wealth to be accumulated by very few—who tend to be white and male. This exacerbates racial and gender inequality, hinders economic growth and broadly shared prosperity, and sharply limits the tax revenues available to make investments in women and people of color.
What is Wealth?
Wealth is commonly understood as the total value of assets that individuals or families have accumulated (such as savings, stock, a home, or a 401(k)) minus any debts (such as student loans or credit card debt).
White men and white families are much more likely to hold wealth than women, households of color, or women of color—and hold significantly more of it. This is a longstanding and persistent problem, but here is the most recent data about gender and racial wealth gaps.
Gender and Racial Wealth Gaps
Women
People of Color
Women of Color
Additionally, women and people of color are underrepresented among the very wealthy. This year, the Forbes 400 list named only 56 women and two Black men—meaning that 85% of the Forbes 400 list are white men.
Wealth Inequality Harms Everyone
Concentrating excessive wealth in the hands of the few—who are disproportionately white and male—not only exacerbates gender and racial inequities but slows economic growth, and, as discussed further below, undermines the economic security of women and people of color, and damages democracy.
Lack of Wealth is Harmful to Women and People of Color
Excessive and Concentrated Wealth Undermines the Democratic Process
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Tax policy can be a powerful tool to increase racial and gender equity, if we are willing to unlock its full potential. Taxing wealth fairly and more effectively would reduce gender and racial wealth gaps. It would break up concentrated wealth (which is disproportionately held by white families and white men). And the revenues raised by better taxing wealth could be invested in supports, such as child care, paid leave, home and community based services, health care, affordable housing, and family tax credits, that could increase opportunities for women and people of color to build wealth. Moreover, it would increase racial and gender equity in the tax code.
For more information, read our report, Advancing Gender and Racial Equity By Taxing Wealth. More resources on how taxes are a racial and gender justice issue are available at https://nwlc.org/resources/gender-and-the-tax-code/ and https://nwlc.org/resource/ttp/.