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NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYThis paper decomposes inequality in the United States into factors related to responsibility (e.g., hours worked, education) and non-responsibility (e.g., gender, race), using yearly data since 1967. We find that the reasons for the rise in income inequality are partially located in the increasing returns to education. Not having a school degree gets punished much harsher on the labor market today than in the past. The reward for completing a college education, on the other hand, has increased substantially. We then analyze inequality within gender, race, and geographical reasons. The main takeaway of the paper suggests that the reasons of the rise in income inequality can differ substantially across all these factors. Thus, potential policies targeting rising income inequality cannot be general, but rather need to specifically target the specific roots of income inequality.JEL Classification: D31, D63, J31