Federal Reserve Board candidate Stephen Moore says the drop in earnings for men is the biggest challenge facing the economy.

“I want everybody’s wages to rise, of course. People are talking about women’s earnings. They’ve risen,” Moore told CNBC.

“The biggest problem I see in the economy over the last 25 years is what has happened to male earnings, for black males and white males as well,” Moore said. “They’ve been declining. That is, I think, a big problem,” he said.

Since 2010, real median weekly earnings for men have risen about 2.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Women’s real earnings have gone up 3.9 percent during the period, CNBC explained.

 “I think we should pay attention to that, because I think that has very negative consequences for the economy and for society,” Moore said.

If he gets confirmed, Moore says, he would take a cooperative approach in helping the Fed guide the economy.

Income inequality has long been a contentious and hot-button topic among economic experts.

For his part, hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio recently wrote that widening income inequality and under-investment in public education “pose an existential risk for the U.S.”

Dalio, who Forbes lists as the 57th-richest person in the world with an estimated fortune of $18.4 billion from founding hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates, released a report earlier this month in which he spells out the ways he sees capitalism as failing in the United States, Reuters reported.

In the report, Dalio advocates for an increase in investments in early childhood education, per-pupil spending, infrastructure, and public health measures in order to save it.

Chief among Dalio’s criticisms are the widening wealth gap in the United States, which he links to lower high school graduation rates, greater disparity in test scores, and lower teacher pay compared with those with similar education levels over the last three decades.

“To me, leaving so many children in poverty and not educating them well is the equivalent of child abuse, and it is economically stupid,” Dalio wrote.

• Census Bureau: Pay Gap Shrinking
• Income Inequality Hits a Disturbing New Threshold 
• Peter Orszag: What's Really Driving Income Inequality