Once upon a time in America, it was expected that most children would surpass their parents on the income ladder. However, a new study released by The Pew Charitable Trusts has found that although most Americans are earning a bit more than their parents, only a meager one-third of the current generation will surpass their parents in wealth and income and climb to a new rung on the economic ladder.

This recent Pew report, which is a follow-up to its seminal 2008 work on the topic, investigates absolute mobility (whether a person has more or less income and wealth than his/her parents did at the same age) and relative mobility (whether one is ranked higher or lower on the income and wealth continua than his/her parents). In particular, the study, titled "Pursuing the American Dream," delineates five income and wealth categories, or "quintiles," in the economic ladder and divides families into each quintile in two ways, based on their family income and family wealth.

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