A study shows that North Carolina has a wealth of wage disparity.

• Position: Statewide

The Occupy Wall Street movement got its start in New York, an appropriate location to protest income inequality. But maybe it should pay more attention to the South--including North Carolina the region that most exemplifies the growing disparity between the country's upper arid lower classes. Using Gini indexes a summary rneasure where I represents perfect inequality (all wealth in one household) and 0 represents perfect equality (wealth spread evenly among all households)--a recent U.S. Census Bureau study reports that the wage gap in the U.S. grew 1 8% between 1967 and 2010. The most recent indexes, generated from surveys completed between 2006 and 2010, show that 32% of Southern counties ranked in the top fifth of all U.S. counties for income disparity. By contrast, 31% of Midwest counties were in the bottom fifth. Though North Carolina's Gini index is better than the nation's, it is among the highest in the country.

Rank State Gini index 1 New York 0.498 2 Connecticut 0.482 3 Louisiana 0.475 4 Mississippi 0.474 5 Texas 0.472 6 Florida 0.471 7 Alabama 0.470 8 California 0.469 Massachusetts 0.469 Tennessee 0.469 14 New Jersey 0.463 North Carolina 0.463 U.S. 0.467 Gini indexes for Metropolitan Statistical Areas Greenwille .482 Durham-Chapel Hill .478 Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill .468 Greensboro-High Point .466 Wilmington .466 Winston-Salem .459 Rocky Mount .458 Asheville .448 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton .443 Raleigh-cARY .440 bURLINGTON .435 fayetteyille .431 Goldsboro .429 Jacksonville .401 WORKING CAPITAL WESTERN CHARLOTTE TRIAD TRIANGLE EASTERN Employed: 462.941 1,028,817 741,930 940,747 1,009,956 YTD change: (2,643) 8,247 2,956 9,344 (2,359) Index: 95.4 107,7 98.0 115.6 105.4 1. Alamance .435 2. Alexander: .448 3. Alleghany .476 4. Anson .442 5. Ashe .447 6...