WASHINGTON (AP) — Higher-income Americans and those with college degrees have ramped up their spending more quickly in the past three years than other consumers, according to new data released Tuesday, evidence of worsening inequality that may explain some of the growing pessimism about the economy.
The data, released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, also show that in the final three months of last year, lower-income and rural households faced higher inflation than higher-income households. The spending data focuses only on goods excluding autos, and does not capture likely spending by higher-income households on travel, restaurants and entertainment.
The figures add support to the notion of a “K-shaped” economy, in which upper-income Americans are fueling a disproportionate share of the consumption that is the primary driver of the economy, while lower-income households see fewer gains. Poorer households in general often experience higher inflation, with a greater share of their spending being set aside for goods that have seen prices soar since the pandemic, things like housing, groceries, and utilities.
The New York Fed's data show that households with incomes of $125,000 and higher have boosted their spending 2.3%, adjusted for inflation, since 2023, while middle-income households — those between $40,000 and $125,000 — have increased their spending by 1.6%. Those earning below $40,000 have lifted their spending by just 0.9%, the report showed.
The figures are an addition to the New York Fed's economic heterogeneity indicators, a series of data sets intended to track variations in the economy by geographic region and demographic and income groups. The goal is to get a better sense of how different groups are faring, trends that can be shrouded by nationwide averages.
The figures are derived from a group of 200,000 consumers tracked by the analytics firm Numerator. Their data closely tracks monthly retail sales released by the government, the New York Fed said.
The report underscores a pattern that has emerged since the pandemic: Lower-income households fared better in 2021 and 2022 when companies were desperate to hire and willing to pay, while the government also provided several economic stimulus checks. Yet beginning roughly in early 2023, hiring slowed and sharp gains in stock market fueled spending gains in wealthier households.
The division is also clear when examined through the lens of education. In 2023 and most of 2024, inflation-adjusted spending by non-college households fell below its January 2023 level. It only regained that level in November 2024, while households with a college graduate had by then boosted their spending by 4%.
The New York Fed notes that college-educated households continued to spend at a rapid pace in 2025 even as hiring slowed and there were a spate of job cuts in white-collar industries such as high tech, government and marketing.
“The difference in the trend in retail spending between college graduates and nongraduates is consistent with the story of a ‘K-shaped economy,’” Rajashri Chakrabarti, an economic research advisor at the New York Fed, and three colleagues wrote.
The findings echo other recent research, including a short paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas last November. The Dallas Fed found modest increases in consumption and income inequality over the past three decades. The wealthiest one-fifth of Americans accounted for about 54% of earnings from 1990-99, the researchers found, a figure that had risen to 60% in the 2020-2025 period. The proportion of spending by the richest one-fifth increased to 57% from 53% between those two periods, the Dallas Fed concluded.
FILE - Diners eat at a restaurant in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan, Nov. 22, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Ex-rugby league international Kane Evans won’t have to worry about the extortion threats any more or be concerned about his family finding out about his sexuality before he’s ready to tell them.
In a television interview Monday with Channel Nine’s “100% Footy,” Evans said he was gay and that he felt like a weight had lifted off him when he finally could talk about it publicly.
Evans is the first high-level rugby league player in Australia to come out as gay since Ian Roberts in 1995.
Evans played 131 games in the elite National Rugby League from 2014-2021 for clubs including the Sydney Roosters, Parramatta and the New Zealand-based Warriors before finishing off his professional career in England in 2023. He played 13 international games for Fiji.
“I had three goals in life: It was to play NRL, to buy my parents a house, and then I wanted to top myself, because I was living in denial from a young age,” the 34-year-old Evans said in the television interview. “I know that I’m gay. But I went down every other avenue to sort of build up these walls ... to escape who I am.”
After struggling with addiction and suicidal thoughts as he dealt with his sexuality as a younger man and professional footballer, and then experiencing homelessness after a business collapse in his post-rugby league career, Evans finally got the support he needed.
Evans said it was only after talking to Joe Galuvao, a former player who works with the Rugby League Players’ Association, that he realized help was so close.
“I thank God that he came and visited me and got me into rehab with the help of the RLPA,” Evans said.
Others in the football fraternity reached out, Evans said. Like Sydney Roosters head coach Trent Robinson, who helped pay the bills while Evans was in rehabilitation and invited him back into the club.
“He called me just to let me know that the Roosters are still my home and they’ve got my back, whatever I’m facing,” Evans said. “That meant the world to me. He took me, my best friend, and one of my mentors to Roosters HQ a week after I got out of rehab."
Evans had planned to come out to his family before the television interview aired.
“I've been fighting a war within since I was about 15 years old and it's not sustainable,” he said. “I’m here today to show people that you don’t have to live like that. Even now I feel a bit more free, just by saying it out loud, I’ve brought it to the light."
Evans said he'd had “people blackmail me … I’ve had people try to deflect their problems by trying to out me. And it just built up a lot of shame, and fear and guilt within myself.”
“Now I’ve spoken about it, I’ve shattered all those chains. They’ve lost their power," he added. “I feel like coming and speaking to you today, fear, shame, guilt -- all of that, I’ve cut ties with all that. I feel peace within.”
Roberts, who played for Australia in the 1990s, described Evans' interview as an “extraordinary moment” and “I was in tears watching.”
“I am so proud of him,” Roberts told News Corp. “Everything he was saying ... I thought ‘this poor kid,’ I know exactly where he is in his head, what he is going through, the extremes of uncertainty of your own sense of self and your sense of other people.”
Andrew Johns, one of rugby league's greatest players, said the bravery Evans had shown would be encouraging for other people.
“To come out and tell the world, especially the rugby league world, it's incredibly strong," Johns told the Nine network. “There's going to be so much love for him in the rugby league — he's going to save a lot of lives.”
Johns said there were a lot of young people struggling with their sexuality and when “they see someone like Kane and the pain he's gone through, and the strength he's shown, it'll help them stand up and talk to parents, or people close to them.”
“So Kane, well done mate," he added. "We all love you. Incredibly proud of you.”
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Kane Evans of the Parramatta Eels, top, is tackled by Bayley Sironen of the South Sydney Rabbitohs during their National Rugby League match between in Sydney, on Aug. 27, 2020. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP Image via AP)
