The majority of Americans have higher incomes than their parents, but it is still not enough to move most of them into a higher bracket—especially those at the bottom.

A new report by The Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-profit research organization, compares the income and wealth of Americans with that of their parents at the same age and finds that 84% have higher incomes, adjusted for inflation.

It also finds that Americans raised at the bottom or top of the income ladder are more likely than others to remain in their parents' category. Forty-three percent of those raised in the poorest fifth of the population were still there; 4% made it to the highest-income group.

A defining factor of the American dream is that a person's family background or income have no bearing on where he or she ends up, but the study shows otherwise, says Erin Currier of Pew's Economic Mobility Project.

Read the full article at usatoday.com.