The nation’s most unequal state In California, researchers found, it really matters where you live. Residents of Silicon Valley live more than four years longer than the average American, earn nearly double the income, and have nearly triple the number of graduate degrees. Residents of Central Valley live nearly a year less than the average American, earn barely more than a poverty-line income, and nearly four in ten failed to graduate from high school.

Explain how the labor markets of California translate education differences into earnings differences.