During the depth of the recession, the top 5 percent of the nation's population held two-thirds of its wealth, while the lower 80 percent held less than 13 percent of the wealth, according to a study released last week by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

Although there has long been a growing gap between the upper income levels and the middle and lower classes, the gap widened during the Great Recession because the decline in real estate values hit the middle-class disproportionately hard, since it had a greater proportion of its wealth tied up in housing.

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In a recent discussion of income inequality in The New York Times, Scott Winship, research director of the Pew Economic Mobility Project, said polls show relatively few people are troubled by the gap, since by midlife three out of four say they have the level of comfort they need.

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