US — Protesters gathered outside JPMorgan Chase in New York City on June 12, 2026, to protest against the SpaceX initial public offering (IPO). The demonstration focused on concerns about growing wealth inequality in the United States.

United States billionaire wealth increased by 31.8% from 2025 to 2026. In 2026, 989 billionaires in the U.S. owned more than $9.2 trillion in wealth, according to an Americans for Tax Fairness report. Elon Musk added $327 billion to his fortune in the 12 months preceding the report, with his wealth growing from approximately $28 billion in 2020 to close to $1 trillion.

With this increase in billionaire wealth, the share of gross domestic product held by U.S. workers fell to 53.8% in the third quarter of 2025. This was the lowest recorded share since 1947. Furthermore, inflation across the U.S. was 4.2% in May 2026, which negated 3.4% in wage growth for the year preceding that month. Approximately 45% of all workers in the U.S., or 66 million people, earn less than $25 an hour. The living wage for a single adult with no dependents exceeds $25 an hour in most of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas, according to MIT's living wage calculator.

Gilberto Rubio, a security officer who has worked in the San Francisco area for four years, earns $25 an hour and has not received a raise in years. The living wage for a single adult with no dependents in the San Francisco area is more than $30 an hour. Rubio stated, "I haven't been able to get ahead working one job." He added, "I've actually had to live in my car just to be able to get by and pay bills." He currently has an apartment.

Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage, a national group advocating for increased wages for restaurant and service workers, noted an increase in advocacy. "I've never experienced this kind of explosive campaign growth over the last year as I have in 20 years, 25 years of organizing," Jayaraman said. She added, "We are feeling real urgency to have a bold, inspiring vision around affordability, around wages in particular, and then to deliver on it."

Economist Gabriel Zucman of the University of California, Berkeley, and French economist Emmanuel Saez compiled data showing that the wealthiest 0.00001% of the U.S. population, approximately 20 individuals, hold wealth equal to 12% of the U.S. gross domestic output. Zucman posed questions regarding the concentration of wealth. "Is it when the wealth of the ultrarich exceeds 50% of GDP, as in the US today?" Zucman asked. He followed, "100%?" and "200%?" He also queried, "When they own not 80% of privately held media, but 100%?" Zucman concluded, "Nobody knows the exact concentration of wealth at which the kinds of plutocratic collapse we have seen in history becomes inevitable." He noted, "The best we can do is study history and keep a close eye on developments around the globe in order to form an opinion."

US credit card debt reached $1.277 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2025, marking a 63% increase from the first quarter of 2021.