{"id":2453190,"date":"2020-01-13T22:32:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T05:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/epi-claims-valley-has-states-largest-income-gap\/"},"modified":"2020-01-13T22:32:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T05:32:00","slug":"epi-claims-valley-has-states-largest-income-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/epi-claims-valley-has-states-largest-income-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"EPI claims valley has state\u2019s largest income gap"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Home to the world\u2019s largest mineral hot springs pool and America\u2019s only mountaintop theme park, Glenwood Springs has earned plenty of accolades over the years.<\/p>\n

According to visitglenwood.com, since 2011, the city and its attractions have garnered 66 merits from USA Today Travel calling it America\u2019s most fun small town to Outside Magazine ranking it one of the 16 best places to live in America.<\/p>\n

However, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington, D.C., has painted the city at the confluence of the Roaring Fork and Colorado rivers in a less flattering light.<\/p>\n

According to the EPI, the \u201cGlenwood Springs metro area\u201d \u2014 defined as the region from Glenwood Springs to Aspen \u2014 ranks as the most unequal metro area in the state with respect to income inequality.<\/p>\n

The interactive article published to the EPI\u2019s website was adapted from \u201cThe New Gilded Age: Income Inequality in the U.S. by State, Metropolitan Area, and County\u201d by Estelle Sommeiller and Mark Price, and reflects 2015 tax filings.<\/p>\n

In the article, the EPI claims that the top 1% in the Glenwood Springs metro area rakes in 45 times more than that of the bottom 99%.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the data states that the average income of the top 1% in the Glenwood Springs metro area was $2.96 million annually, whereas the average income of the bottom 99% was a little over $66,000.<\/p>\n

Glenwood Springs\u2019 city officials say to take the report with a grain of salt.<\/p>\n

\u201cEPI is always trying to point out the difference between the haves and the have-nots,\u201d Steve Boyd, Glenwood Springs chief operating officer, said. \u201cThat\u2019s their existence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being over 40 miles apart, the EPI factored Aspen and all of Pitkin County into what it defines as the Glenwood Springs metro area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are using official government definitions of what are metropolitan areas,\u201d Price explained. \u201cPitkin County is one of the components of the Glenwood Springs, Colorado metropolitan area.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the EPI, Pitkin County ranked as the seventh most unequal county in the country with respect to income inequality; Garfield County was ranked 156th nationally as it related to income inequality.<\/p>\n

While Pitkin County\u2019s top 1% pulled in an average of approximately $6.6 million annually, Garfield County\u2019s 1% collected roughly $1.49 million.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Pitkin County\u2019s bottom 99% took in over $91,000 annually whereas Garfield County\u2019s earned nearly $58,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question I would have for these guys is, what\u2019s the median income?\u201d Boyd said. \u201cThat would be a much better indicator of how things are going in Glenwood Springs because we have a handful of households that make a lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although a different data source, according to the United States Census Bureau, between 2014 and 2018, the median household income in Glenwood Springs was just over $63,000.<\/p>\n

The state median household income during the same time frame was nearly $69,000 and the national was just over $60,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy for people to look at (the EPI\u2019s headline) and say, \u2018The rich are dominating the poor in Glenwood.\u2019\u201d Boyd said. \u201cAnd, that\u2019s really not what\u2019s happening in this community.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Home to the world\u2019s largest mineral hot springs pool and America\u2019s only mountaintop theme park, Glenwood Springs has earned plenty of accolades over the years. According to visitglenwood.com, since 2011, the city and its attractions have garnered 66 merits from USA Today Travel calling it America\u2019s most fun small town to Outside Magazine ranking it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2453190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-09 16:10:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}