Growing Income Inequality Dashes Delmarva Dreams – DelmarvaNow
To catch a glimpse of what income inequality looks like, look no further than Delmarva, said Benjamin Orr, executive director of the Maryland Center on Economic Policy.
“When we talk about the great jobs in Maryland, the ones that really bump up our salaries, we’re talking about government jobs and business and professional services,” Orr said. “While those exist on the Shore, they’re in much lower concentrations.”
Just because they’re paid less doesn’t mean people on the Shore don’t work hard, he added. It’s just that the area’s most iconic industries — tourism in the coastal resorts, seafood along the Chesapeake Bay, the poultry and grain production in the middle — offer little financial reward for most involved.
The ensuing struggle to make ends meet is so endemic that “everyone has a story,” Orr said. “A lot of these numbers we talk about, they’re not just one or two people. They’re most of us.”
