Income inequality in the United States is at its highest level in at least 50 years, according to the government’s Census Bureau. According to Oxfam, the world’s wealthiest 26 individuals had the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the population in 2018. But 2021 was a year like no other for the billionaires, and it’s not the world still trapped in an unprecedented public health crisis.

The number of billionaires on Forbes’ 35th annual list of the world’s wealthiest exploded to an unprecedented 2,755. That’s a whopping 660 more than just a year ago. According to Forbes, of those, a record high 493 were new to the list—roughly one every 17 hours, including 210 from China and Hong Kong. Another 250 who’d fallen off in the past came right back. As a result, this year we see a mindblowing 86% who are richer than a year ago.

But what is the relationship between nepotism and sky-high fortune like that? Well, legally, the concerns surrounding it are few but not to be ignored. Tom Gies, a founding member of the labor and employment law practice at Crowell & Moring, says there's little out there to discourage nepotism—and nothing that explicitly forbids it.

However, trouble can arise if a company advertises a vacant job and then fills it with an employee's relative who clearly is less qualified than, say, a female or minority applicant. That can run up against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlaws discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion or national origin. But the solution is more than simple: if the job opening is never publicly advertised, it's almost impossible for anyone to cry foul over nepotism.