Jump directly to the international links section of this page	Jump directly to the "wealth inequality in Canada" section of this page
The Occupy Movement (this link takes you further down on the page you're now reading)
Related Canadian Social Research Links page: Banks and Business Links: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/bookmrk3.htm

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Is there a growing wealth and income gap in Canada? The Growing Gap project takes an in-depth and sustained look at one of the biggest challenges of our time: Worsening income and wealth inequality in Canada. Growing Gap publications - reports, studies, commentary and fact sheets NOTE : click the "More" link at the bottom of each list on the publications page to see a more complete collection. Growing Gap News Releases & Updates Growing Gap is an initiative of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Low income and inequality - portal to all StatCan products on the subject of inequality Source: Statistics Canada --------------------------- From the Bank of Canada: Inflation Calculator The Inflation Calculator uses monthly consumer price index (CPI) data from 1914 to the present to show changes in the cost of a fixed "basket" of consumer purchases. These include food, shelter, furniture, clothing, transportation, and recreation. Investment Calculator The Investment Calculator shows the effects of inflation on investments and savings.

A historical snapshot of inequality in Canada http://goo.gl/Vm4XX 6 Jan 2012 Source: Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU) http://www.childcarecanada.org

Economic Inequality http://www.economicinequality.ca/ Economic inequality is a big subject, and a lot of energy from a lot of people is needed to create more equality. Our organization is creating opportunities for public discussion of the kinds of policies we need and the kinds of actions (by us and by others) that are required.

NOTE: This page is organized in reverse chronological order, for the most part...

EconomicInequality.ca
Bulletin No.7
May 2, 2012
http://www.economicinequality.ca/2012/05/03/bulletin-no-7-may-2nd-2012/
This Bulletin is published by the group that has created the web site Economic Inequality.ca, and has initiated a series of public meetings about what we can do about economic inequality in Canada. The Bulletin is published every few weeks to convey useful information about how we can change economic inequality.
Contents of this issue:
1. Act politically now for more equality
2. Understanding Bill 55, the budget legislation
3. We can have an impact

Links to all seven bulletins:
http://www.economicinequality.ca/category/updates/
Source:
Economic Inequality
http://www.economicinequality.ca/
Economic inequality is a big subject, and a lot of energy from a lot of people is needed to create more equality. Our organization is creating opportunities for public discussion of the kinds of policies we need and the kinds of actions (by us and by others) that are required.

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From
Huffington Post Canada:

Mind the Gap : Chronicling Canada's Growing Rich-Poor Divide (special series)
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/news/mind-the-gap
(...) An increasingly small share of people are taking up an increasingly large share of Canada’s impressive economic growth. Why is this happening? What can be done about it? Does it even matter? These are the questions we will focus on in The Huffington Post Canada’s Mind The Gap series, which over the coming months will tackle the issue of income inequality.

Selected recent site content:

Wealth And Traffic Accidents Study Shows
Poorer People Many Times More Likely To Be Hurt
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/04/19/traffic-accidents-rich-poor_n_1438655.html
April 19, 2012
By Rachel Mendleson
MONTREAL - People living in poor neighbourhoods are more than six times as likely to be injured in a road accident as their wealthy counterparts, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

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Canada Income Inequality: Broadbent Institute Survey Shows
Vast Majority Wants Government To Do Something About The Wage Gap
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/04/10/canada-income-inequality-survey-taxes_n_1415599.html
April 10, 2012
By Rachel Mendleson
The vast majority of Canadians are concerned about the growing gap between rich and poor, and are willing to pay higher taxes to fight it, a new poll shows. As the debate about income inequality intensifies, observers have often bemoaned that the causes and implications of this trend are too abstract to resonate with average Canadians. But the survey, released Tuesday by the Ottawa-based Broadbent Institute, indicates that most respondents believe that the deepening rich-poor divide could have a negative impact on everything from our standard of living to democratic principles.

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So There's Income Inequality. Now What?
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/rob-rainer/income-inequality_b_1242439.html
January 31, 2012
By Rob Rainer
(...) following an awareness breakthrough in 2011, public support and political interest for addressing inequality is apparent.
But what is to be done?
As the London-based Equality Trust states, there are two compatible options:
• Reduce the differences in employment income before tax; and
• Increase the redistribution of income through tax and benefit systems
(...)
In a country governed federally by a party ideologically wed to laissez-faire economics, and where in 2010 the average compensation for the 100 highest paid CEOs in Canada was 189 times that of the compensation of the average worker, neither option seems likely.
And so the more effective option for combating inequality is for governments to, first, rebuild greater fairness into our systems of taxation and, second, increase the distribution of income from the "top" to the "bottom." In 1948 there were 19 personal income tax brackets in Canada, and the top marginal tax rate was 80 per cent on incomes over $250,000 ($2.37 million in 2011 dollars). Today, we have but four brackets and the top rate is but 29 per cent, kicking in on earnings over $132,406.
The key to solving inequality seems pretty clear. Have we the public will now to support the political will for a fairer, better society?

Rob Rainer is Executive Director of Canada Without Poverty:
http://www.cwp-csp.ca/

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Canada Income Inequality And The Decline Of Unions:
Have We Passed A Point Of No Return?
http://goo.gl/wNJMs
December 2011
By Rachel Mendleson
- includes a five-minute video, an article (with charts) and a slideshow examining the 10 fastest-shrinking sectors from 2004 to 2008, when the recession began.
Don't miss the 236 comments!

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Source:
Huffington Post Canada
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

From the
Edmonton Social Planning Council:

The fACTivist: Income Inequality - March 2012
HTML version:
http://www.edmontonsocialplanning.ca/content/view/1139/276/
PDF version (36 pages, 6.4 MB):
http://goo.gl/HWI96
Winter Edition
March 2012

This edition of the Factivist examines the multifaceted and complex issue of "income inequality". The articles in this issue review how various groups in Canada and Alberta are affected by income inequality, how Alberta compares to other provinces, and different policy drivers that can reduce the income gap.

Foreword: Income Inequality
Income 101: Per Capita Wealth and Inequality
Comparison of Income Inequality in Other Canadian Provinces
Seniors and Poverty: Why Women are at Greater Risk
Income Inequality: Now and Then
What Comes Around, Goes Around: Income Inequality and Children
Income Inequality in Our Immigrant Community
Immigrant Earnings and Inequality
Why Does Income Inequality Matter? A Look at Vancouver
Growing Polarization of Income in Canada: Does Lack of Access to Higher Education Have a Hand in it?
Aboriginal Injustice
Income Inequality in Alberta and its Impacts on Albertan Women
Yes, In My Backyard
The Affordability Gap

Source:
Edmonton Social Planning Council
http://www.edmontonsocialplanning.ca

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Canadians willing to pay higher taxes for equality
http://goo.gl/4cOlK
April 10, 2012
According to results of the first poll commissioned by a new left-leaning think tank, the majority of Canadians are concerned by the growing gulf between haves and have-nots, and they're willing to pay for change. The Environics Research survey commissioned by former NDP leader Ed Broadbent's eponymous institute was released Tuesday.
Source:
CTVNews.ca

Related link:

Broadbent Institute
http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/
The Broadbent Institute is an idea realized in 2011 after years of percolating in the mind of Canadian politician and advocate, Ed Broadbent. Endorsed by Jack Layton and supporters from right across Canada, the Broadbent Institute is inspired by a common vision of free, equal, and compassionate citizenship in Canada – the very heart of what social democracy is about.

More info about the Broadbent Institute:
http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/about

---

Related stories from CTVNews:

Economic equality an ongoing battle for women, prof says
http://goo.gl/W5YnD

Top CEOs got 189 times the average worker's pay in 2010
http://goo.gl/az7oq

Super-rich have already made an average yearly salary
http://goo.gl/NOiIm

OECD report finds income inequality rising in Canada
http://goo.gl/mn4Pi

Index finds inequalities in Canadians' quality of life
http://goo.gl/NDrM9

Source:
CTVNews.ca

From
Huffington Post Canada:

So There's Income Inequality. Now What?
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/rob-rainer/income-inequality_b_1242439.html
By Rob Rainer
January 31, 2012
Spiked by public attention to the Occupy phenomenon, 2011 was the year in which the issue of income and wealth inequality mainstreamed in Canada. Witness: Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney called the Occupy demonstrations "entirely constructive." Jeffrey Simpson, perhaps the land's top newspaper columnist, wrote about inequality. The Conference Board of Canada released a significant report. On January 6, Jeffrey Simpson wrote further to say that, "it's imperative that political actors put the issue front and centre on the national agenda." The NDP leadership race, at least, is embracing the challenge, for example Brian Topp's plan for federal tax reform.
So let's herald a little good news: Inequality is on the public and political radar.
---
Author Rob Rainer is of Canada Without Poverty
(formerly known as the National Antipoverty Organization):
http://www.cwp-csp.ca/

Source:
Huffington Post Canada
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Related links from
Huffington Post Canada:

* Income inequality - The Conference Board of Canada
http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/society/income-inequality.aspx

* Financial Security - Income Distribution / Indicators of Well-being in Canada
http://www4.hrsdc.gc.ca/.3ndic.1t.4r@-eng.jsp?iid=22

* Income inequality rising quickly in Canada - The Globe and Mail
http://goo.gl/lHKCz

* OECD report finds income inequality rising in Canada | CTV News
http://goo.gl/3WlPv

* Canada Income Inequality: Toronto's Cabbagetown A Prime Example Of Shrinking Middle Class
http://goo.gl/i4JLp

* Canada Income Inequality And The Decline Of Unions : Have We Passed A Point Of No Return?
http://goo.gl/wNJMs

Economic Inequality.ca Bulletin No. 1
http://goo.gl/nS4CF
January 27, 2012
This Bulletin is published by the group that has created the web site Economic Inequality.ca, and has initiated a series of public meetings about what we can do about economic inequality in Canada. The Bulletin is published every few weeks to convey useful information about how we can change economic inequality.
More than 325 people attended this group's first public forum on the subject of economic inequality on January 24 at Trinity St. Paul’s Centre in Toronto.
In this Bulletin, you'll find information about the two speakers, a summary of their presentations and the audience discussion that followed and some general thoughts on the meeting.
Source:
Economic Inequality
http://www.economicinequality.ca/
Economic inequality is a big subject, and a lot of energy from a lot of people is needed to create more equality. Our organization is creating opportunities for public discussion of the kinds of policies we need and the kinds of actions (by us and by others) that are required.

Growing income gap generates little blame, poll suggests
Canadians see large wealth disparities but few believe corporate profits are a bad thing
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2012/01/19/pol-focus-canada-environics-poll.html
January 19, 2012
Canadians continue to believe there's a significant income gap between the rich and the poor in their country, a new poll suggests. But there's no clear agreement on who's to blame for this perceived disparity. And only one Canadian in five thinks large corporate profits are bad. Highlights from the annual Focus Canada national public opinion survey by the Environics Institute were released at the Canada 2020 conference in Ottawa on Thursday afternoon. The full report will be available in March.

[ Comments (241):
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/01/19/pol-focus-canada-environics-poll.html#socialcomments ]

Related CBC Links:

* CHART | The wage gap in Canada
http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/canada-income/

* MAP | Income inequality around the globe
http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/income-inequality/

* Wealth gap widens to 30-year high
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/12/05/oecd-rich-poor-gap.html

* MAP | The Occupy Canada movement
http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/occupy-canada/

* ANALYSIS | Occupy Economics: Is the system broken?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/10/17/f-pittis-occupy-economics.html

Source:
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/news/

Inequality rises across the G20 as economic growth leaves the poor behind
Strong economic growth since 1990 has failed to lift people out of poverty in almost every G20 country, according to a study by international agency Oxfam.
http://www.oxfam.ca/news-and-publications/news/inequality-rises-across-g20-economic-growth-leaves-poor-behind
News Release
18 January 2012
Left behind by the G20? shows the importance of policies to address inequality if growth is to benefit those living in poverty. (...) Since 1990, income inequality has increased in 14 of the 18 Group of 20 countries for which there are comparable statistics, says Oxfam’s report card. Inequality increased fastest in Russia, China, Japan and South Africa, with Canada following close behind.

The Oxfam report:

Left behind by the G20? How inequality and environmental degradation
threaten to exclude poor people from the benefits of economic growth (PDF - 648K, 47 pages)
http://goo.gl/8x0qe
January 2012
Average global income per person has doubled over the last forty years.2 The proportion of the world’s population living in poverty has fallen significantly over the same period, but the absolute number remains high: 1.3 billion people still live on less than $1.25 a day. More than half of these women and men are in G20 countries. [Source : Introduction, p. 6]

Source:
Oxfam International
http://www.oxfam.org/
Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working together in over 90 countries and with partners and allies around the world to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice.

See also:

Oxfam Canada
http://www.oxfam.ca/
Oxfam Canada is a member of the international confederation Oxfam. Oxfam has 15 national Oxfam agencies that together work in 92 countries. Oxfam Canada works with partner organizations in developing countries; tackling the root causes of poverty and inequity and helping people to create self-reliant and sustainable communities.

Oxfam Canada Annual Report 2011
http://www.oxfam.ca/news-and-publications/publications-and-reports/oxfam-canada-annual-report-2011
Accountability. It’s a commitment Oxfam takes very seriously – to our partners, to our donors, but most importantly, to women and men, girls and boys living in poverty.

Related link:

Poverty lingers in prosperous G20, Oxfam says
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1117866
January 18, 2012
By Olivia Ward
The image of the G20’s rising giants is enticing: Chinese tourists trotting the globe, Indians lining up for electronic luxuries, Russian petrodollars fuelling designer boutiques. But the reality for many in the world’s most prosperous countries is far grimmer, says a report released Thursday by the international charity Oxfam. And economic growth numbers tell only a fraction of the story.
Source:
Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/

From the
Vancouver Sun:

Ed Broadbent, the originator of Canada’s commitment to end child poverty in 1989, has argued higher taxes on excessive compensation could provide the financial resources to fund a targeted plan to reduce, and potentially eliminate, the depth of poverty among Canadian families with children. But even without taking the step of raising taxes for Canada’s well-compensated CEOs, there is one simple thing Canada could do to curb CEOs’ enthusiasm—and their take-home pay. We could end the public subsidy of excessive CEO pay packages by getting rid of the loophole that allows the proceeds from cashing in stock options to be taxed as if they were capital gains—at half the normal rate—rather than as ordinary income.

Reducing Income Disparities and Polarization (PDF - 388K, 33 pages)
http://goo.gl/DB8Fu
- includes the three following contributions:
* Why Canadians Should Care About Income Inequality - by Mark Cameron
* Income Distribution in Canada - by Andrew Sharpe
* Inequality Is Not Inevitable - by Sherri Torjman and Ken Battle

Source:
The Canada We Want in 2020:
Towards a strategic policy roadmap for the federal government
http://canada2020.ca/canada-we-want/

Source:
Canada 2020
http://canada2020.ca/

From
Huffington Post Canada:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Canada Income Inequality: Living In Unequal Cities A Health Risk To Rich And Poor, Study Finds
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/11/28/canada-income-inequality-health-risk_n_1109923.html
November 28, 2011
As Canada’s rich-poor divide deepens, critics often point to the tome of research linking income inequality and poor health in countries like the United States as proof that, if unchecked, the growing gap could quite literally make us sick. But new evidence brings the warning much closer to home. Looking exclusively at the Canadian-born population, a pioneering study has found that the income differential is already having an adverse effect on the health of residents in cities with the widest gap, increasing the likelihood of succumbing to everything from alcohol abuse to colorectal cancer – regardless of individual income.

Income Gap Leads To Health Problems For Montrealers
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/11/28/income-inequality-montreal-life-expectancy_n_1117148.html
November 28, 2011
Socio-economic inequality continues to have a profound impact on health and access to services in Montreal, including subsidized daycare, according to a new report by the city's public health agency. The report released Monday highlights the gap between rich and poor when it comes to life expectancy and health.

The report:

Inégalités sociales de santé
http://www.dsp.santemontreal.qc.ca/media/dossiers_de_presse/inegalites_sociales_de_sante.html
NOTE: As at December 1, the above link will take you to the French page for this report and related links. There is a notation that "the complete English version will be available shortly." Currently on the site, there is an English version of the synthesis report (see the next link below).

Social Inequalities in Montréal : Progress to Date
2011 Report of the Director of Public Health
Synthesis Report (PDF - 7.5MB, 40 pages)
http://www.dsp.santemontreal.qc.ca/fileadmin/documents/4_Espace_media/Dossiers_de_presse/iss/en_rapport_synthese_2011_final.pdf

Director of Public Health (English home page):
http://www.dsp.santemontreal.qc.ca/english_version.html
NOTE: With the exception of a few reports and press releases, there's not much content en anglais on this site. I find it bizarre that in Canada's largest and arguably most cosmopolitan city, the government can't find the resources to make everything available in both official languages. This criticism isn't directed at Montreal City Hall --- the website belongs to the Government of Québec. And here's the Québec government's rationale, copied from the English home page of this site: "As health professionals practicing in Quebec are required to have good command of the French language, this site is in French."
[The language police have spoken.]

---------------------------

Version française:

Inégalités sociales de santé
En 1998, le premier rapport annuel de la Direction de santé publique de Montréal faisait état d’une différence de dix ans entre l’espérance de vie moyenne des hommes des quartiers montréalais défavorisés par rapport à leurs concitoyens des quartiers riches. Une décennie s’est écoulée depuis ce premier portrait de l’état de santé des Montréalais et le temps est maintenant venu de mesurer le chemin parcouru. Les inégalités sociales de santé sont donc au cœur du rapport 2011 du directeur de santé publique.
- liens vers le rapport complet, le rapport synthèse, un résumé, un communiqué de presse et une présentation Powerpoint de la conférence de presse

Source:
Directeur de santé publique de Montréal (page d'accueil en français)
http://www.dsp.santemontreal.qc.ca/

Inequality Facts in BC (from Raise the Rates)
Source:
Raise the Rates

Occupy Wall Street From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations in New York City[ based in Zuccotti Park, formerly "Liberty Plaza Park". The protest was originally called for by the Canadian activist group Adbusters. The action has been compared to the Arab Spring movement (particularly the Tahrir Square protests in Cairo, which initiated the 2011 Egyptian revolution) and the Spanish Indignants. The participants of the event, who have called themselves the "99 percenters", are mainly protesting against social and economic inequality, corporate greed, and the influence of corporate money and lobbyists on government, among other concerns. By October 9, similar demonstrations had been held or were ongoing in 70 major cities and more than 600 communities. We are the 99 percent We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent. Occupy Wall St. OccupyWallSt.org is the unofficial de facto online resource for the ongoing protests happening on Wall Street. We are an affinity group committed to doing technical support work for resistance movements. OCCUPY TOGETHER is an unofficial hub for all of the events springing up across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall St. The Occupy Protests - a Toronto Star special feature with news about the Canadian, U.S. and international Occupy movements Occupy Canada Facebook page - In solidarity with #OccupyWallStreet, @OccupyToronto, and the countless other @Occupy movements across the world. --- Occupying the Lange and O’Leary Exchange By Armine Yalnizyan November 3, 2011 Starting today I will be on a regular weekly biz panel for the Lang and O’Leary show, every Thursday night. The panel will take on two six minute segments to discuss the big economic stories of the day. Today’s proposed topics – the Eurozone mess, whither Canada’s GDP, is Occupy a media invention/will it hold without media attention, upcoming job market numbers. A cool opportunity to bring a progressive perspective into perhaps the most neoliberal — and watched — Punch and Judy show in the business news universe, at least in English-speaking Canada. The show airs daily on CBC News Network, between 7 and 8 p.m. The biz panel segment will be in the second half of the show, after 7:30. Source: Progressive Economics Forum --- From the CBC: Lang and O'Leary Exchange : November 3, 2011 (video, duration 59:27) TIP: If you really can't stomach the blowhard O'Leary, click and drag the video status bar to the 34-minute mark to catch Armine's panel segment, including her friendly observation that if Kevin loves the U.S. so much, he should consider moving there. (Yay, Armine --- I'm thinking of starting an online petition to muster some support for that!) You can watch the show each weeknight from 7-8pm on the CBC News Network, or (over the coming weeks) go to the Lang & O'Leary Exchange website and click on the links to the Thursday shows, above for the first segment involving Armine, who is senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives --- Occupy Wall Street: Reining in the rich Will tighter financial rules even the playing field? By Alex Roslin November 5, 2011 MONTREAL (...)The eight-week-old Occupy Wall St. movement has highlighted mounting anger at a financial system that allowed out-of-control bankers to plunge the global economy into its worst downturn since the Depression, only to bail them out with billions in taxpayer money while they rewarded themselves outlandish bonuses. Some commentators say the answer is tighter financial rules and an end to billion-dollar bank bailouts. But would this make the economy fairer? Would it get the protesters to put down their signs and go home? (...) In Canada, income inequality is by some measures the worst it’s ever been in 90 years of recorded history, worse even than at its previous peak in the Roaring Twenties, said Armine Yalnizyan, a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. “The system is concentrating wealth in fewer and fewer hands. It’s not a sustainable trajectory,” she said. In a study last December, Yalnizyan found that the richest one per cent of Canadians capture a whopping 32 per cent of all income growth. Source: Montreal Gazette --- How does Canada’s 1% compare to other countries? October 14, 2011 In light of Occupy Wall Street and the spin­offs that are growing in many other cities, there have been a large number of excellent articles and studies going around looking at the top 1% of income earners in the United States. What is Canada’s place in this debate, and what is the conventional wisdom regarding Canada as an equal society? - includes three charts: * Richest 1% of population : share of national income * How much more of the income pie di the highest 1% get over the past 25 years * Median Total Income for each income group in 5% increments - scroll down past the charts for half a dozen links to further readings on the subject Source: reWORKit.net Web productions for unions and social change --- Five Facts You Should Know About the Wealthiest One Percent of Americans It may shock you to learn exactly how wealthy this top 1 percent of Americans is. October 4, 2011 As the ongoing occupation of Wall Street by hundreds of protesters enters its third week — and as protests spread to other cities such as Boston and Los Angeles — demonstrators have endorsed a new slogan: “We are the 99 percent.” This slogan refers to an economic struggle between 99 percent of Americans and the richest 1 percent of Americans, who are increasingly accumulating a greater share of the national wealth to the detriment of the middle class. Just the Facts: 1. The Top 1 Percent of Americans Owns 40 Percent of the Nation’s Wealth 2. The Top 1 Percent of Americans Take Home 24 Percent of National Income 3. The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Own Half of the Country’s Stocks, Bonds and Mutual Funds 4. The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Have Only 5 Percent of the Nation’s Personal Debt 5. The Top 1 Percent are Taking In More of the Nation’s Income Than at Any Other Time Since the 1920s Source: AlterNet AlterNet is an award-winning news magazine and online community that creates original journalism and amplifies the best of hundreds of other independent media sources. AlterNet’s aim is to inspire action and advocacy on the environment, human rights and civil liberties, social justice, media, health care issues, and more. Related links: We are the 99 percent We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent. Occupy Wall St. OccupyWallSt.org is the unofficial de facto online resource for the ongoing protests happening on Wall Street. We are an affinity group committed to doing technical support work for resistance movements. OCCUPY TOGETHER is an unofficial hub for all of the events springing up across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall St. --- - Go to the Inequality Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/inequality.htm

Rising tide not lifting all boats (video, duration 5:53)
September 30, 2011
The income gap in Canada has been widening since the 1990s -- and now it’s growing at a faster pace than in the United States. Armine Yalnizyan, Senior Economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, tells BNN a growing income gap is particularly worrying because happened during a period of strong economic growth.
Source:
Business News Network

Rich Getting Richer In Ontario September 28, 2011 Hugh Mackenzie: "From 1992 to 2007, 90% of the income gain in Canada went to the top 1% while their effective tax rate went down." Video, duration 16:12

When business talks about inequality, it’s time to worry
By Armine Yalnizyan
September 27, 2011
The world is marking the third anniversary of the biggest global economic crisis since the 1930s by staring down the imminent possibility of a second global downturn. Virtually none of the conditions that triggered the first one have been addressed.
(...)
It is in business’ interests to reduce inequality, but short-term gains eclipse the long-term view for too many. Governments have less excuse. Their job is not to save the rich and lose the economy. It is to think forward, to implement public policy that benefits the majority, sustainably, and reverses this relentless trend towards growing inequality. At the very least, governments shouldn’t make things worse.
NOTE: this article includes several links to related material from the Conference Board of Canada, the International Monetary Fund and others.

[ 73 comments ]

Armine Yalnizyan is a senior economist with the
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

More Globe and Mail articles
about income inequality in Canada:

* Income inequality rising quickly in Canada (September 13)
* Taxing high earners: Five key points for the debate (September 21)
* Taxing the rich may be fair, but it won’t fill the coffers (September 19)

Source:
Globe and Mail

Inequality is bad for business
By Armine Yalnizyan
September 15, 2011
In August Canadian Business magazine published my article on why inequality is bad for business.
[ http://www.canadianbusiness.com/article/39123--inequality-is-bad-for-business ]

Last week the International Monetary Fund, not known for left-leaning views, released a series of articles entitled “Why Inequality Throws Us Off Balance”.
[ http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2011/09/index.htm ]

One of the papers is by Andrew Berg and Jonathan Ostry entitled “Equality and Efficiency: Is there a trade-off or do the two go hand in hand?
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2011/09/Berg.htm

A few months earlier they had written a provocative piece “Inequality and Unsustainable Growth” documenting how lower inequality is linked to more sustained periods of growth….and that higher inequality means more volatility.
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2011/sdn1108.pdf

Yesterday the Conference Board of Canada released its second report on income inequality, looking at trends in income inequality internationally, between and within nations. It follows an earlier report on trends in income inequality in Canada. These authoritative pieces of research are funded by 25 big businesses and one government.
http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/hot-topics/worldInequality.aspx

From the
Conference Board of Canada:

Hot Topic: World Income Inequality
Is the world becoming more unequal?
September 2011

Key Messages:
* Of total world income, 42 per cent goes to those who make up the richest 10 per cent of the world’s population, while just 1 per cent goes to those who make up the poorest 10 per cent.
* Income inequality among countries in the world rose sharply between the 1980s and the mid-1990s, before levelling off and then falling after 2000.
* Countries with very high inequality are clustered in South America and southern Africa. Countries with low inequality are mostly in Europe. Canada and the U.S. have medium income inequality.
* The increase in income inequality has been more rapid in Canada than in the U.S. since the mid-1990s.

Click the link above to access the following
collection of information in question-and-answer format:

Is world income inequality increasing?
How do we define a “rich” country? How do we define a “poor” country?
How do we measure world income inequality?
Method 1: Is there an income gap between rich and poor countries? Has the gap increased?
Method 2: Has world income inequality increased? If so, why?
Method 3: Are there large gaps between rich and poor people within each country? Are these gaps increasing?
What is happening to income inequality in Canada and its peer countries?
Why has income inequality increased in the United States?
Why is income inequality rising in China?
Has there been income inequality throughout history?
Is your income level determined by where you live?

See also:
Canadian Income Inequality
July 2011

Source:
Conference Board of Canada

Related links:

Record poverty last year as household income dips
Median household income declines; families ‘doubled up’
September 13, 2011
WASHINGTON — A record number of people were in poverty last year as households saw their income decrease, according to data from the Census Bureau Tuesday, demonstrating the weakness of the economy even after the official end of the recession. The 46.2 million people in poverty in 2010 was the most for the 52 years that estimates have been published, and the number of people in poverty rose for the fourth consecutive year as the poverty rate climbed to 15.1% — the highest since 1993 — up from 14.3% in 2009.
Source:
MarketWatch
MarketWatch, published by Dow Jones & Co., tracks the pulse of markets for engaged investors with more than 16 million visitors per month.

Income inequality rising quickly in Canada
Tavia Grant
September 13, 2011
The gap between the rich and the rest is growing ever wider -- with the chasm increasing at a faster pace in Canada than in the United States. That’s the conclusion of a Conference Board of Canada study Tuesday, which says income inequality has been rising more rapidly in Canada than in the U.S. since the mid-1990s.

[ 661 comments ]

Source:
Globe and Mail

Related Globe and Mail articles:

* We're ignoring inequality at our peril
* Does hike in minimum wage cut poverty? Findings say no
* Nearly 1 in 6 Americans live in poverty: Census

Our self-image needs a reality check
September 15, 2011
By Carol Goard
We’re closing the gap — and it’s nothing to be proud of.
For generations, we have taken comfort in the belief that we live in a more equitable country than the United States. Globally, Canada might be in the middle of the pack, but compared to our American neighbours, we are a compassionate people. Our rich-poor divide might be widening, but it is modest relative to theirs. A new report from the Conference Board of Canada shatters that myth. Since the mid-1990s, income inequality has been rising faster in Canada than the U.S. They’re still in top spot, but we’re catching up. Our Gini index, which measures income equality, rose by 9 per cent over the last decade. Theirs increased by 4.7 per cent.
(...)
There are two policy levers Canada could use to counter the trend of the last decade:
• We could make our tax system more progressive. (...)
• We could strengthen our social programs. What differentiated Canada from the U.S. for most of our history was our sturdy safety nets. They protected us in times of adversity, caught people before they fell into destitution and gave everyone a measure of security against the risk of illness and a precipitous drop in income. But over the last 30 years Ottawa has switched to narrowly targeted benefits and the provinces have become tight-fisted. The wealthy are largely unaffected; the poor are more exposed to market forces.
But both options are non-starters in Ottawa. The Harper government is calling on low- and middle-income Canadians to tighten their belts while it lowers corporate tax rates. The provinces are dismantling their disparity-fighting mechanisms. And there is no public pressure for a change of direction. Canada was never a land of equal opportunity, although we clung to that self-image. Now we can’t escape the truth: We’re galloping in the opposite direction, outpacing even the U.S.
Source:
Toronto Star

Fault Lines: The Top 1% (YouTube video, duration 25:00) Aug 2, 2011 The richest 1% of US Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country's income and control an astonishing 40% of its wealth. Inequality in the US is more extreme than it's been in almost a century — and the gap between the super rich and the poor and middle class people has widened drastically over the last 30 years. Meanwhile, in Washington, a bitter partisan debate over how to cut deficit spending and reduce the US' 14.3 trillion dollar debt is underway. Source: Fault Lines [ Aljazeera English ]

You Oughta Know: Canada's Income Gap,
the Richest 20% vs the Poorest 20% (online slideshow)
July 18, 2011
The income gap between the rich and the rest of us has worsened over the past generation. In 2009, during the dark days of Canada's recession, the richest 20% of Canadians took home a whopping 44.2% of total after-tax income -- in stark contrast to the poorest 20% whose after-tax income share was only 4.9%. What did the gap look like in your province? This You Oughta Know slideshow tells the story.
Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Canada’s income gap growing
July 13, 2011
By Laurie Monsebraaten
Income inequality in Canada is widening as the rich get richer and poor and middle-income Canadians lose ground, says the Conference Board of Canada in a report being released Wednesday. (...) The 33-year trend which has accelerated since 1993, raises questions about the country’s economic well-being, including whether Canada is using all the skills and talents of its citizens and whether social cohesion and fairness are being undermined, says How Canada Performs: Is Canada becoming more unequal?

[ Comments (44) ]

Source:
Toronto Star

From the
Conference Board of Canada:

How Canada Performs: A Report Card on Canada This website—How Canada Performs: A Report Card on Canada—assesses Canada’s quality of life compared with that of its peer countries. The 2008–09 financial crisis and resulting global recession caused massive turbulence in the major Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economies, making it hard to draw meaningful conclusions from the preliminary data from that period. While we wait for actual post-recession data to be released later this year so we can update the six performance category report cards, we are releasing a series of 10 “hot topic” analyses. [NOTE : "Canada Inequality" is one of the 10 hot topics.]

Rich Canadians Are Getting Richer
New release
July 13, 2011 — The richest group of Canadians increased their share of total national income while poor and middle-income individuals lost ground since 1993, according to The Conference Board of Canada’s How Canada Performs analysis of income inequality. Even though income levels for the poorest group of Canadians also rose, albeit minimally, the gap between the rich and poor in Canada widened.

Hot Topic: Canada Inequality
Is Canada becoming more unequal?
July 2011
Key Messages:
* Income inequality in Canada has increased over the past 20 years.
* The richest group of Canadians increased its share of total national income between 1993 and 2008, while the poorest group lost share. Middle-income Canadians also lost share.
* Although the gap between the rich and poor widened, Canadians in the poorest income group still saw their income levels rise, albeit minimally.
NOTE: includes detailed information and stats related to inequality in question-and-answer format; also includes links to other related Conference Board articles and to outside source material.

[ See all Hot Topics ]

Source:
Conference Board of Canada

Rising CEO Pay: Could it fuel social unrest? (three-part video, see links below)
June 1, 2011
BNN (Business News Network) has taken on the thorny topic of soaring CEO pay in Canada. Two former CEOs joined CCPA Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan for a discussion about CEO pay and came to agreement on three important points: Executive compensation has gotten out of line; workers at the bottom and middle of the income spectrum need a boost, and higher taxes on the richest Canadians is the easiest solution to this worsening inequality.
Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)
The CCPA is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social and economic justice.

Income inequality : three-part video
(The average income of a top-100 CEO is 155 times the average income of the workers in those same industries. Discuss.)

* Income Inequality - (part one of the video) (Duration 9:46)
* Income Inequality - (part two of the video) (Duration 8:22)
* Income inequality - (part three of the video) (Duration 4:45)
[ By Gilles : You *rock*, Armine! ]

Related BNN link:

What is fair compensation for CEOs
and how should that be determined? (three-part video, see links below)
May 30, 2011
BNN speaks to Janet McFarland, reporter, Globe and Mail; Paul Gryglewicz, Managing Partner, Global Governance Advisors; Courtney Pratt, former CEO of Stelco.

Fair compensation : three-part video
* Compensation Study - (part one of the video) (Duration 9:26)
* Compensation Study - (part two of the video) (Duration 8:14)
* Compensation Study - (part three of the video) (Duration 5:15)
Source:
Business News Network

Related link:

Who earned what last year, and why?
By Janet McFarland
May. 29, 2011 (updated May. 31, 2011)
Canada’s biggest companies have made strides in linking CEO pay to performance, but the effort remains a work in progress in many boardrooms. A new tool - Pay for performance: How Canada’s CEOs stack up - developed by Toronto-based executive pay consulting firm Global Governance Advisors shows that the link between pay and performance varies significantly, with some companies disclosing above-average CEO compensation and below-average performance in 2010.
Source:
Globe and Mail

The Economic Well-Being of Canadians:
Is there a Growing Gap? (PDF - 842K, 58 pages)
By Chris Sarlo
May 2009
(...) Public attitudes about inequality, arguably influenced by media attention, are such that a significant majority of Canadians believe that the gap between the rich and the poor is growing. (...)
This paper has two purposes. First and principally it is a critical examination of the evidence for a "growing gap" in Canada. The paper will attempt to look at inequality in a somewhat broader context than is customary. Evidence drawn largely from household-spending data files as well as from household facility-ownership data and household net-worth data can shed additional light on the trend in inequality for Canada. Second, the paper will examine the issue of data reliability in the context of the measurement of inequality.
Source:
The Fraser Institute
Motto: A free and prosperous world through choice, markets and responsibility

Growing Income Inequality in OECD Countries:
What Drives It and How Can Policy Tackle It? (PDF - 751K, 14 pages)
May 2011
Table of contents:
The overall picture: inequality on the rise in most OECD countries
--- Trends in income inequality
--- Where is the increasing income inequality coming from: wages, employment or capital incomes?
What drives growing earnings and income disparities?
--- How important are globalisation, technological change and regulatory reform for inequality?
--- Does it matter for inequality whether rich men marry rich women?
--- Have income taxes and benefit systems become less successful in redistributing income?
Which lessons for policies?

Issue paper on Tackling Inequality (PDF - 224K, 4 pages)
May 2011

Source:
OECD Forum on Tackling Inequality (PARIS)
[ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ]

[ More on OECD research on Income Distribution and Poverty ]

---

Related links:

From the
Wellesley Institute

‘Scary’ income inequality on rise in Canada and other rich economies: New OECD report
May. 6, 2011
Research from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released earlier this week indicates that income inequality continues to grow rapidly in Canada and in most of the world’s other rich economies. The research points to an international trend where economic growth only translates into growth in household income for the wealthiest in society and doesn’t serve to benefit household incomes of everyone.

From the
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA):

February 2011 : Inequality
February 1, 2011
[ PDF version - 67K, 1 page ]
Excerpts:
===> $6.6 million = The average compensation of Canada’s best-paid 100 CEOs in 2009.
===> $42,988 = The average wage for Canadians working full-time, year-round.
===> 155 times = How much the best-paid 100 CEOs earn more than average wage.
===> 0 = The number of women among the best-paid 100 CEOs in Canada in 2009.
===> 20th = Canada ranks 20th, behind the U.S., in a global ranking of women’s equality

Source:
The Hennessy Index- "A number is never just a number"
[Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)
The CCPA is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social and economic justice.]

------------------------------------------

Income inequality bad for everyone: Richard Wilkinson (video, duration 7:52)
December 17, 2010
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) was pleased to co-sponsor a three-city lecture tour featuring Richard Wilkinson, co-author of the best selling book The Spirit Level, which examines income inequality among developed nations. During his stop in Toronto, he sat down with the CCPA's Trish Hennessy to talk about the book.

Related link: The Spirit Level from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The costs of inequality: * Community life and social relations * Mental health and drug use * Physical health and life expectancy * Obesity: wider income gaps, wider waists * Educational performance * Teenage births: recycling deprivation * Violence: gaining respect * Imprisonment and punishment * Social mobility: unequal opportunities The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger By Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson January 2010 - more information about the book ($28) and where to buy it, as well as links to 17 reviews, commentaries and blog posts. Source: Bloomsbury Press

Also from CCPA:

Richest 1% income shares at historic high
News Release
December 1, 2010
TORONTO – Canada’s richest 1% are taking more of the gains from economic growth than ever before in recorded history, says a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). The Rise of Canada’s Richest 1% looks at income trends over the past 90 years and reveals the 246,000 privileged few who rank among the country’s richest 1% took almost a third (32%) of all growth in incomes between 1997 and 2007. That's a bigger piece of the action than any other generation of rich Canadians has taken,” says Armine Yalnizyan, CCPA senior economist and the report’s author.

Complete report:

The Rise of Canada's Richest 1% (PDF - 739K, 22 pages)
By Armine Yalnizyan
December 2010
(...) Combine record-breaking growth in incomes with historically low top tax rates, and the richest 1% is taking a bigger piece of the economic pie today than at any time in the past century. The report also touches on the concentration of wealth, but 2005 was the last time Statistics Canada examined the distribution of wealth in Canada, a study it has no plans to repeat. A recent private sector study shows that by the end of 2009, 3.8% of Canadian households controlled $1.78 trillion dollars of financial wealth, or 67% of the total. [Excerpt from p. 4]

Related link:

The rich really are getting richer
By Joe Friesen
December 1, 2010
The super rich are, in one respect, not that different from ordinary Canadians: they work for their money. It’s just that they’re rewarded at a rate most people only dream of. The top 0.01 per cent of Canadian income earners, the 2,400 people who earn at least $1.85-million, aren’t just basking in investment income and business profits. Nearly 75 per cent of their income comes from wages, just like the average Canadian, according to a new study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
[ The rewards of the rich - infographic ]
[ 146 comments ]
Source:
Globe and Mail

---

Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)
The CCPA is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social and economic justice.

Poverty Profile 2007: Bulletin No. 10 - Income Inequality
October 2010
How is income distributed in Canada? In our bulletin on income inequality, we examine how Canada compares to other countries. We also look at trends in income inequality for Canadian families.
Source:
National Council of Welfare

Soft landing for Canada’s CEOs
News Release
January 4, 2010
TORONTO—Canadians may have been hit hard by a worldwide economic recession, but it appears Canada’s 100 highest paid CEOs are enjoying a soft landing. A report on executive compensation by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), a progressive think tank, reveals Canada’s 100 highest paid CEOs pocketed an average $7.3 million in 2008, the year recession broadsided the nation.

A Soft Landing:
Recession and Canada’s 100 Highest Paid CEOs (PDF - 432K, 17 pages)
By Hugh Mackenzie
January 4, 2010
"...the total average compensation for Canada's 100 highest paid CEOs was $7,352,895 in 2008—a stark contrast from the total average Canadian income of $42,305. They pocketed what takes Canadians earning an average income an entire year to make by 1:01 pm January 4—the first working day of the year."

Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

The welfare asset trap
October 21 2009
It is well known that when the Conservatives came to power in 1995 Mike Harris gutted welfare rates – leaving needy Ontarians living far below the poverty line. Less well known is that changes were also made to force Ontarians to divest themselves of almost every cent of savings, including cashable RRSPs, before they could qualify for a welfare cheque. In a report to be released Oct. 21, Metcalf Foundation fellow John Stapleton presents a compelling case for allowing welfare recipients to keep some savings. (...) Asset-stripping is just one of the failings of our outdated and mean-spirited social assistance system. The government's promised social assistance review – still waiting to be launched – will find many other hurdles in the path of those in need of a helping hand.
Source:
The Toronto Star

Open Policy - John Stapleton's website

The Affordability Gap:
Spending differences between Canada's rich and poor (PDF - 396K, 17 pages)
September 2009
By Steve Kerstetter
"(...)Much of the recent research on poverty talks about social exclusion or social inclusion as the best way of defining poverty. Poverty, according to this view, isn’t strictly a matter of very low income. It is also based on whether people are able to participate in a meaningful way in the society around them. In other words, can poor people purchase the goods and services that most people would consider reasonable for normal living in 21st century Canada? The latest spending data suggest the answer to that question is no.

Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social and economic justice. Founded in 1980, the CCPA is one of Canada’s leading progressive voices in public policy debates.

Related media coverage:

Poor households in a world `far removed'
Forget cellphones, poorest can't afford life's basics, and the recession has only made their plight worse
September 24, 2009
By Rita Trichur
The poorest Canadians are struggling to pay for life's necessities, forcing them to do without such everyday basics as eyeglasses, dental care and furniture – and the recession has only made their plight worse, says a major think-tank. In a study to be released today, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives paints a disturbing picture of how the poor are unable to afford many of the goods and services that most Canadians consider "reasonable for normal living" in modern society.
Source:
Toronto Star

A brief history of pensions.
Pay attention because you may be about to lose yours
August 1, 2009
By Thomas Walkom
The drive to dismantle the welfare state has a new target. Governments have already gutted unemployment insurance and social assistance. Out-of-date labour laws make it tough to organize unions in the new, decentralized, service-based economy. Now, thanks in large part to the dynamics of the recession, pensions are under attack. (...) Even before this recession hit, it was clear that pensions were under the gun. Good retirement benefits, like good wages, interfere with what economists call labour market flexibility – that is, the willingness of workers to take low-wage jobs.
Source:
The Toronto Star

Why Inequality Matters in 1,000 Words or Less (PDF - 398K, 32 pages)
April 28, 2008
Why Inequality Matters in 1,000 Words or Less is powerful essay series by some of Canada’s leading thinkers on income inequality. The contributors to this essay series come from all kinds of academic backgrounds. Though all the contributors are distinguished and well-respected for their academic work, they are not of like mind. They have differing ideological starting points and differing intellectual approaches. But they agree on this: Income inequality is a problem that should be addressed, right here in Canada. They warn that income inequality and persistent poverty could have serious and adverse effects on our nation. In this series we present the opinions of four economists—Lars Osberg, Charles Beach, Jon Kesselman and David Green; a political scientist— Michael Orsini; a sociologist—John Myles; a philosopher—Frank Cunningham.

Why Inequality Matters: Presentation to the Canadian Labour Congress Convention (PDF - 106K, 6 pages)
May 27, 2008
By Armine Yalnizyan
"(...) Unions are [also] looking at poverty through new lenses — not just the importance of improving inadequate incomes, but the necessity of affordability for basics like housing, child care, education, to make sure we are all set on the right path in life.

Two days, two reports, two very different worlds
June 29, 2007
The World Wealth Report 2007 released on Wednesday by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini reports that the very rich (so-called high net worth individuals – HNWI) are getting even richer. And the forecast is the extremely wealthy are going to get even richer due to their dominance of global capital markets, especially commercial real estate and real estate investment trusts. Meanwhile, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a detailed research report on Thursday called Rising Profit Shares, Falling Wage Shares which shows that real hourly wages for workers (the people that do things, rather than own things) “have been stagnant for 30 years running”.The two studies make fascinating reading, when set side-by-side...
Source:
The Wellesley Institute Blog
[ The Wellesley Institute ]

Canada’s growing gap at new 30-year high
Majority of families working harder, less payoff
Press Release
March 1, 2007
TORONTO – Canadian families are putting in more work time, yet most – 80% of them – are getting a smaller share of Canada’s growing economy, says a study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).The study finds Canada’s income gap between the rich and poor is growing, largely because the lion’s share of Canada’s economic growth is going to the richest 10% of families. It’s not going to the majority, the 80% of families earning under a $100,000.

The Rich and the Rest of Us:
The Changing Face of Canada's Growing Gap - PDF File, 613K, 54 pages)
By Armine Yalnizyan
March 2007

November 20, 2006
GROWING GAP,
GROWING CONCERNS:
Canadian Attitudes Toward Income Inequality (PDF file - 1MB, 14 pages)
"(...)while many Canadians think that the “rags to riches” story is possible to achieve in Canada, half say that they themselves are only one or two missed pay-cheques away from economic disaster."

Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)

Poverty Is Not Just About Income – It’s Also About Assets (PDF file - 64K, 4 pages)
Notes for a Presentation to the conference: "Investing in Self-Sufficiency: Moving the Asset-Building Agenda Forward in B.C."
Coquitlam, British Columbia, October 21-22, 2004
By Cynthia Williams, Senior Research Fellow
Source:
[ Canadian Policy Research Networks ]

Income Inequality as a Determinant of Health
April 6, 2004
A report on population health by Health Canada, based on papers and presentations by CCSD's Katherine Scott.

Wealth Inequality in Canada

[ Jump directly to U.S. wealth inequality links (lower down on the page you're now reading ]

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The Rise of Canada's Richest 1% (PDF - 739K, 22 pages)
By Armine Yalnizyan
December 2010
(...) Combine record-breaking growth in incomes with historically low top tax rates, and the richest 1% is taking a bigger piece of the economic pie today than at any time in the past century. The report also touches on the concentration of wealth, but 2005 was the last time Statistics Canada examined the distribution of wealth in Canada, a study it has no plans to repeat. A recent private sector study shows that by the end of 2009, 3.8% of Canadian households controlled $1.78 trillion dollars of financial wealth, or 67% of the total. [Excerpt from p. 4]
Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)

June 7, 2010
Homeownership over the Life Course of Canadians:
Evidence from Canadian Censuses of Population
June 2010
By Feng Hou
Table of contents:
1. Acknowledgements
2. Abstract
3. Executive summary
4. Main article
5. Tables
6. Charts
7. Appendices
8. User information
9. PDF version (524K, 32 pages)

Source:
The Daily
[Statistics Canada]

Wealth, income inequality rising: Study
Press Release
April 28, 2008
TORONTO – Canada’s inequality in wealth and income is growing, and at a more rapid pace than before, says a new study released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). The study, by economist Lars Osberg, looks at 25 years of income and wealth inequality in Canada and finds disturbing new trends.

Complete report:

A Quarter Century of Economic
Inequality in Canada: 1981-2006 (PDF - 995K, 46 pages)
By Lars Osberg
April 2008

Source:
[ Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives ]

Related links:

Wealth gap exposes fresh labour challenge
By Michael Valpy
April 26, 2008
The final 2006 census data will portray the richest 5 per cent of Canadians as dramatically accumulating more wealth, the incomes of most residents showing perhaps the greatest stagnancy in the developed world and the nation's poorest falling further and further behind. Immigrants and Canada's native-born youngest male adults will be identified as the prime victims of a 25-year trend in widening income inequality – an inequality some economists believe reflects systemic long-term changes to the labour market rather than transitional bumps in demographics and swings in the business cycle. The data to be released Thursday by Statistics Canada will show median incomes falling for immigrants and native-born 18-to-34-year-old males who compete directly for the same entry level jobs that are increasingly characterized as low-pay, unstable and short term.
Source:
The Globe and Mail

Wealth, Low-Wage Work and Welfare:
The Unintended Costs of Provincial Needs-tests (PDF - 604K, 8 pages)
April 2008
"(...)Assets do matter as an important, but so far largely undervalued, factor in well-being. Assets are more than stored-up income, they are stored-up hope, agency and aspiration. To the degree that welfare policy is ultimately concerned with well-being - and we believe it is - far greater attention should be paid to assets." (Excerpt, p.7)
- includes detailed info on what constitutes assets in the Canadian welfare system as well as asset exemption levels in all Canadian jurisdictions and a number of options for provincial/territorial governments wishing to promote greater asset development within their welfare program.

Source:
Asset-building Program
[ Social and Enterprise Development Innovations (SEDI)
SEDI is are a national charitable organization dedicated to enabling poor and unemployed Canadians become self-sufficient. We take a variety of leading-edge social and economic approaches to this goal in areas such as policy development, program management, capacity building, public education, and research.]

A Surge in Wealth Inequality
December 14, 2006
Posted by Andrew Jackson
"There was a fair amount of media coverage of the new data on assets and debt from the 2005 Survey of Financial Security released by Stats Can last week (...) Slightly buried in the new paper is evidence that wealth inequality is increasing at an even faster rate than was the case in the 1990s, and that the distribution is becoming ever more skewed to the very affluent.

Source:
Relentlessly Progressive Economics

Related Link:

December 13, 2006
Study: Inequality in wealth, 1984 to 2005
The gap between the nation's families with the highest net worth and those with the lowest widened between 1999 and 2005, in part because of gains in the value of housing, a new study shows.The study, published today in Perspectives on Labour and Income, ranked family units into five groups, or quintiles, from the lowest net worth to the highest. Each represented 20%, or one-fifth, of all families. Between 1999 and 2005, the median net worth of families in the top fifth of the wealth distribution increased by 19%, while the net worth of their counterparts in the bottom fifth remained virtually unchanged.

Source:
Statistics Canada

Also from StatCan:

Assets and debts
- links to 6 studies on the assets and debts of Canada's families in 2006
Source:
Canadian Statistics

The evolution of wealth inequality in Canada, 1984-1999 (PDF - 432K, 59 pages)
November 2003
By R. Morissette, X. Zhang and M. Drolet
"Our main findings are as follows: 1) Wealth inequality has increased between 1984 and 1999; 2) the growth in wealth inequality has been associated with substantial declines in real average and median wealth for recent immigrants and young couples with children; 3) real median wealth and real average wealth rose much more among families whose major income recipient is a university graduate than among other families; 4) real median and average wealth fell among families whose major income recipient is aged 25–34 and increased among those whose major income recipient is aged 55 and over; 5) the aging of the Canadian population over the 1984–1999 period has tended to reduce wealth inequality; 6) changes in permanent income do not explain a substantial portion of the growing gap between low-wealth and high-wealth families. Factors that may have contributed to rising wealth inequality—which cannot be quantified with existing data sets—include differences in the growth of inheritances, inter vivos transfers, rates of return on savings and number of years worked full-time. In particular, rates of return on savings may have increased more for wealthy family units than for their poorer counterparts as a result of the booming stock market during the 1990s."
Source:
The Levy Economics Institute
Annandale-on-Hudson (New York)

A year earlier, on the same topic:

Rags and Riches: Wealth Inequality in Canada
December 2002
by Steve Kerstetter (CCPA-BC)
"Canadians may view their country as a land of opportunity, but it is also a land of deep and abiding inequality in its distribution of personal wealth. This is the key conclusion of Rags and Riches: Wealth Inequality in Canada, a new CCPA study by social policy analyst Steve Kerstetter, a former Director of the National Council on Welfare.The study features data never before published about the very richest and very poorest Canadians. It draws on special data runs commissioned from StatsCan by the CCPA to provide extensive new analysis on the distribution and characteristics of wealth dating back to 1970 for each of five regions of the country."
Complete report:
Rags and Riches: Wealth Inequality in Canada - PDF File, 362 Kb
(See the
* Appendix A: Wealth Groups by Region, 1999 - PDF File, 138 Kb
* Appendix B: Assets and Debts by Region and Quintile, 1999 - PDF File, 298 Kb
* Appendix C: Markers for Wealth by Region, 1999 - PDF File, 149 Kb
* Appendix D: Assets and Debts by Province, 1984 and 1999 - PDF File, 166 Kb
* Upstairs, Downstairs and in Between: The Assets and Debts of British Columbians - PDF File, 74 Kb
* Where's the Beef in BC's Fiscal Plan? - PDF File, 74 Kb
* BC Home to Greatest Wealth Gap in Canada - PDF File, 83 Kb
* BC's Bountiful Crop of Millionaires - PDF File, 86 Kb

Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

U.S. / International (links are added to this page are in reverse chronological order, for the most part)

From
the New York Times:

Obama Goes on Offensive Over Taxes on Wealthy
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/us/politics/obama-to-make-case-for-buffett-rule.html
By Jackie Calmes
April 10, 2012
BOCA RATON, Fla. — All but certain now that his Republican opponent will be Mitt Romney, President Obama has made his proposed “Buffett Rule” minimum tax for the wealthiest Americans like Mr. Romney a centerpiece of his re-election campaign, defying the political risk of being seen as a tax-and-spender by wary voters. With a rousing speech on Tuesday to a receptive university audience of about 5,000 in this battleground state, Mr. Obama defined the coming contest as a clash of philosophies: His argument that tax fairness and the common good demand the richest Americans pay at least as much as middle-income taxpayers do, contrasted with Republicans’ opposition to any tax increases as job killers and class warfare, even at the cost of deep cuts in domestic programs.

---

Mr. Obama and the ‘Buffett Rule’
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/opinion/mr-obama-and-the-buffett-rule.html
Editorial
April 10, 2012
President Obama accomplished two things when he made the case on Tuesday for the so-called Buffett Rule, which would require millionaires to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes. He persuasively argued that it would be a step toward fairness in a tax code tilted in favor of the wealthiest Americans. Not incidentally, it allowed him to take an implicit shot at his virtually certain opponent, Mitt Romney, both personally and politically.
(...)
The Buffett Rule, which would raise an estimated $50 billion over 10 years, would not make an appreciable dent in the deficit or provide a lot more for essential programs. By comparison, letting the Bush-era tax cuts expire for taxpayers making more than $250,000 a year, as the president has also called for, would raise $800 billion over 10 years. Mr. Obama must ensure that the Buffett Rule does not become a substitute for ending those tax cuts

Source:
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/From
the New York Times:

Obama Goes on Offensive Over Taxes on Wealthy
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/us/politics/obama-to-make-case-for-buffett-rule.html
By Jackie Calmes
April 10, 2012
BOCA RATON, Fla. — All but certain now that his Republican opponent will be Mitt Romney, President Obama has made his proposed “Buffett Rule” minimum tax for the wealthiest Americans like Mr. Romney a centerpiece of his re-election campaign, defying the political risk of being seen as a tax-and-spender by wary voters. With a rousing speech on Tuesday to a receptive university audience of about 5,000 in this battleground state, Mr. Obama defined the coming contest as a clash of philosophies: His argument that tax fairness and the common good demand the richest Americans pay at least as much as middle-income taxpayers do, contrasted with Republicans’ opposition to any tax increases as job killers and class warfare, even at the cost of deep cuts in domestic programs.

---

Mr. Obama and the ‘Buffett Rule’
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/opinion/mr-obama-and-the-buffett-rule.html
Editorial
April 10, 2012
President Obama accomplished two things when he made the case on Tuesday for the so-called Buffett Rule, which would require millionaires to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes. He persuasively argued that it would be a step toward fairness in a tax code tilted in favor of the wealthiest Americans. Not incidentally, it allowed him to take an implicit shot at his virtually certain opponent, Mitt Romney, both personally and politically.
(...)
The Buffett Rule, which would raise an estimated $50 billion over 10 years, would not make an appreciable dent in the deficit or provide a lot more for essential programs. By comparison, letting the Bush-era tax cuts expire for taxpayers making more than $250,000 a year, as the president has also called for, would raise $800 billion over 10 years. Mr. Obama must ensure that the Buffett Rule does not become a substitute for ending those tax cuts

Source:
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/

The rich are different; they get richer
http://goo.gl/1kUID
By Harold Meyerson
March 27, 2012
Occupy Wall Street is not known for the precision of its economic analysis, but new research on income distribution in the United States shows that the group’s sloganeering provides a stunningly accurate picture of the economy. In 2010, according to a study [see the link to the study below] published this month by University of California economist Emmanuel Saez, 93 percent of income growth went to the wealthiest 1 percent of American households, while everyone else divvied up the 7 percent that was left over. Put another way: The most fundamental characteristic of the U.S. economy today is the divide between the 1 percent and the 99 percent.
(...)
Research [see the link to the research report below] by Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution, as part of the Economic Mobility Project, has shown that intergenerational mobility in the United States has fallen far below the levels in Germany, Finland, Denmark and other more social democratic nations of Northern Europe.

Source:
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

The study by Saez:

Striking it Richer:
The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States (PDF - 136K, 10 pages)
http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2010.pdf
Updated with 2009 and 2010 estimates
By Emmanuel Saez
March 2, 2012
Source:
Berkeley
http://elsa.berkeley.edu/

The research report by Isaacs:

International Comparisons of Economic Mobility
http://goo.gl/khV2O
By Julia B. Isaacs
Source:
The Brookings Institution
http://www.brookings.edu

Inequality: The role of unions and race
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/updates/inequality-role-unions-and-race
March 8, 2012
The University of Toronto's Richard Florida has an important two-part series (see below) in The Atlantic focusing on what is driving the growing income gap in American cities. In particular, he and colleague Charlotta Mellander look at what is driving the differences in income inequality, since it's not a one-size-fits-all phenomenon, even in the U.S. (...) Florida writes that his findings "suggest that the full story of inequality across American cities goes beyond technology, globalization, skills and wages, and includes unions, race and poverty."
Source of this news release:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/

---

Part One:

The Inequality of American Cities
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/03/inequality-american-cities/861/
By Richard Florida
March 5, 2012
Inequality is shaping up to be one of the biggest issues in the 2012 presidential election. The Occupy movement may have waned since last fall, but its focus on the privileges of the top one percent has yet to go away.

Part Two:

The Inequality Puzzle in U.S. Cities
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/03/inequality-puzzle-us-cities/858/
By Richard Florida
March 7, 2012
What lies behind the inequality of American cities? The conventional explanation blames the rise of the globalized, knowledge economy which has eliminated family-supporting factory jobs and cleaved the workforce into high-paying, high-skill and low-paying, low-skill jobs. But ...wage inequality only explains a very small part of income inequality. How to explain this apparent discrepancy? What other factors lie behind rising inequality across America's cities? To answer that question, I reviewed several powerful theories that try to explain persistent economic and social disadvantage across cities.
* The first focuses not just on trends in skills and wages, but on shifts in populations. (...)
* A second calls attention to declining rates of unionization. (...)
* A third focuses on the intersection of race, poverty and economic disadvantage.(...)

Related paper:

The Inequality of Cities: Differences and Determinants of Wage and Income Inequity across U.S. Metros
January 19, 2012
By Richard Florida and Charlotta Mellander

Abstract
http://goo.gl/eqUz5
This paper examines the geographic variation in wage inequality and income inequality across US metropolitan areas and analyzes the factors associated with each. A large literature focuses on the role of skill-biased technical change in shaping inequality; other recent studies have noted the connection between inequality and metro size. We map both types of inequality and conduct regression analyses of the determinants of each.
[more...]

Complete paper (PDF - 496K, 26 pages)
http://research.martinprosperity.org/papers/Inequality-of-cities-formatted.pdf

Source:
Richard Florida is Senior Editor at The Atlantic [ http://www.theatlantic.com/ ] and
Director of The Martin Prosperity Institute [ http://martinprosperity.org/ ]
The Lloyd & Delphine Martin Prosperity Institute is the world’s leading think-tank on the role of sub-national factors – location, place and city-regions – in global economic prosperity. We take an integrated view of prosperity, looking beyond economic measures to include the importance of quality of place and the development of people’s creative potential.

March 9, 2012
From the Off the Charts Blog
(Center on Budget and Policy Priorities):

On income inequality:
http://www.offthechartsblog.org/even-in-a-down-year-top-1-percent-had-more-total-income-than-bottom-50-percent/
Chuck Marr showed that even in 2009, a “down” year for high earners, the top 1 percent of households had more total Adjusted Gross Income than the bottom 50 percent.

On the share of the nation’s income going to the top 1 percent:
http://www.offthechartsblog.org/incomes-bouncing-back-at-the-top/
Chad Stone noted that the share of the nation’s income going to the top 1 percent rebounded in 2010, and he contrasted those gains with the increase in the number of people in severe poverty in recent years [ http://www.offthechartsblog.org/things-looking-up-at-the-top-down-at-the-bottom/ ].

More on the 1 percent:
http://www.offthechartsblog.org/income-growth-at-the-top-mostly-occurring-at-the-tippy-top/
Hannah Shaw noted that the income gains for the top 1 percent in 2010 occurred mostly at the very top of that group.

On extreme poverty:
http://www.offthechartsblog.org/under-2-dollars-a-day-in-america-part-1/
We wrote a three-part series on extreme poverty, and Arloc Sherman highlighted a new study showing that the number of families living on less than $2 per person a day more than doubled in the last 15 years.

Source:
Off the Charts Blog
http://www.offthechartsblog.org/
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
http://www.cbpp.org/
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is one of the nation’s premier policy organizations working at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals.

Inequality rises across the G20 as economic growth leaves the poor behind
Strong economic growth since 1990 has failed to lift people out of poverty in almost every G20 country, according to a study by international agency Oxfam.
http://www.oxfam.ca/news-and-publications/news/inequality-rises-across-g20-economic-growth-leaves-poor-behind
News Release
18 January 2012
Left behind by the G20? shows the importance of policies to address inequality if growth is to benefit those living in poverty. (...) Since 1990, income inequality has increased in 14 of the 18 Group of 20 countries for which there are comparable statistics, says Oxfam’s report card. Inequality increased fastest in Russia, China, Japan and South Africa, with Canada following close behind.

The OXFAM report:

Left behind by the G20? How inequality and environmental degradation
threaten to exclude poor people from the benefits of economic growth (PDF - 648K, 47 pages)
http://goo.gl/8x0qe
January 2012
Average global income per person has doubled over the last forty years.2 The proportion of the world’s population living in poverty has fallen significantly over the same period, but the absolute number remains high: 1.3 billion people still live on less than $1.25 a day. More than half of these women and men are in G20 countries. [Source : Introduction, p. 6]

Source:
OXFAM Canada
http://www.oxfam.ca/
Oxfam Canada is a member of the international confederation Oxfam. Oxfam has 15 national Oxfam agencies that together work in 92 countries. Oxfam Canada works with partner organizations in developing countries; tackling the root causes of poverty and inequity and helping people to create self-reliant and sustainable communities.

Also from OXFAM Canada:

Oxfam Canada Annual Report 2011
http://www.oxfam.ca/news-and-publications/publications-and-reports/oxfam-canada-annual-report-2011
Accountability. It’s a commitment Oxfam takes very seriously – to our partners, to our donors, but most importantly, to women and men, girls and boys living in poverty.

Related link:

Poverty lingers in prosperous G20, Oxfam says
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1117866
January 18, 2012
By Olivia Ward
The image of the G20’s rising giants is enticing: Chinese tourists trotting the globe, Indians lining up for electronic luxuries, Russian petrodollars fuelling designer boutiques. But the reality for many in the world’s most prosperous countries is far grimmer, says a report released Thursday by the international charity Oxfam. And economic growth numbers tell only a fraction of the story.
Source:
Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/

Economic Inequality
http://www.economicinequality.ca/
Economic inequality is a big subject, and a lot of energy from a lot of people is needed to create more equality. Our organization is creating opportunities for public discussion of the kinds of policies we need and the kinds of actions (by us and by others) that are required.

Economic Inequality: What Do We Do?
Public Meeting: Tuesday January 24th
http://www.economicinequality.ca/2012/01/09/bulletin-january-2012/
Public Meeting
Tuesday, January 24 (7 pm – 9 pm)
Trinity St. Paul’s Centre
427 Bloor St. West (one block west of Spadina)
Toronto
This summer the Occupy movement rekindled widespread interest in the growing income gap in our society. You are invited to the first in a series of public forums on the subject of economic inequality.

Speakers:

Linda McQuaig, Toronto Star columnist and co-author of The Trouble with Billionaires
Ed Waitzer, partner of law firm Stikeman Elliott, former chair of Ontario Securities Commission, and professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and Schulich School of Business.

Speakers will be followed by an audience discussion moderated by John Sewell.
Be part of this important discussion to plan ways to achieve a more equal society.
This event is wheelchair accessible
Free – donations welcome

NEW from the
Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU):
http://www.childcarecanada.org

A historical snapshot of inequality in Canada
http://goo.gl/Vm4XX
6 Jan 2012
... a look back at the inequalities between various groups that have been constant themes in Canada; a universal system of high quality ECEC has a key role to play in addressing these inequities.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
report finds income inequality rising in Canada
http://goo.gl/RbStb
December 5, 2011
A new report finds that the gap between the rich and the poor just keeps getting wider in Canada. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development released a report on Monday looking at the rise of inequality in countries around the world. Particularly since the mid-1990s in Canada, the report states, the disparity between the rich and the poor has been growing.
Source:
CTV.ca
http://www.ctv.ca/

From the OECD:

Society: Governments must tackle record gap between rich and poor, says OECD
http://www.oecd.org/document/40/0,3746,en_21571361_44315115_49166760_1_1_1_1,00.html
News Release
December 5, 2011
The gap between rich and poor in OECD countries has reached its highest level for over over 30 years, and governments must act quickly to tackle inequality, according to a new OECD report. “Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising” finds that the average income of the richest 10% is now about nine times that of the poorest 10 % across the OECD.

Divided We Stand:
Why Inequality Keeps Rising (US$ 105)
December 2011
Free preview of the first 100 pages of the report:
http://goo.gl/ix6xH

Divided We Stand
Why Inequality Keeps Rising
An Overview of Growing Income
Inequalities in OECD Countries:
Main Findings (PDF - 244K, 25 pages)
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/40/12/49170449.pdf

Purchase the report from the OECD Bookshop: (US$ 105)
http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/display.asp?sf1=identifiers&st1=9789264111639
Scroll down the page to see the table of contents.

Country note : Canada (PDF - 500K, 2 pages)
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/50/52/49177689.pdf
Income inequality among working-age persons has been rising in Canada, particularly since the mid-1990s. According to the latest data, the level of inequality is above the OECD average but still below that of the US.

All country notes:
http://goo.gl/unxGD
- includes Australia - Canada - France (en Français & English) - Germany - Italy (in Italian & English) - Japan (in Japanese & English) - Mexico (in Spanish & English) - Spain (in Spanish & English) - United Kingdom - United States

Source:
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
http://www.oecd.org/

---

Related links:

Mind the OECD Credibility Gap
http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2011/12/06/mind-the-oecd-credibility-gap/
By Andrew Jackson
December 6, 2011
The OECD report on inequality is well worth a careful read. It bolsters, through careful empirical and cross country analysis, two key arguments long advanced by the labour movement and progressive economists:
1. Key trends in the labour market – widening wage disparity between top earners and the rest, and the disproportionate growth of precarious jobs – are the major driving force behind rising inequality of individual earnings which has in turn been a major force behind increased inequality of family incomes
2. The impact of growing earnings inequality on the distribution of family income has been compounded by major regressive changes to the redistributive role of the tax and transfer system. “Globalization” is found to have played a lesser role – though a link is drawn from greater competition and closer economic integration with developing countries to the erosion of pro equality institutions (eg. unions and collective bargaining) and policies (eg labour market regulation, and tax and transfer policies.)
(...)
It is ironic, though, that this OECD report (emanating from the employment and social policy side of the organization, DELSA) flags as the underlying causes of inequality precisely those policies which the economic side (ECO) advocated for so strenuously through at least the 1990s and much of the past decade as well.
(...)
[In the 1990s] The OECD endorsed the draconian Liberal Government cuts to social programs – cuts to UI and cuts in transfers to the provinces to finance social assistance – which are now seen as a key driving force of the surge in inequality in Canada which began in the mid 1990s. The OECD also raised no criticism of personal income tax changes which increased after tax income inequality, notably the cut from 75% to 50% of capital gains included in income tax. Now they tell us that the Canadian tax/transfer system offsets only 40% of any increase in market income inequality – one of the lowest proportions in the OECD – compared to 70% in the mid 1990s when Canada’s redistributive effort was at near Nordic levels!

Source:
Progressive Economics Forum
http://www.progressive-economics.ca/

From the
Globe and Mail:

Income inequality: deep, complex and growing
http://goo.gl/Yw1tV
By Jeffrey Simpson
December 9, 2011
(...) Inequality has been growing in Canada for many years; correcting for it will not be easy or fast. The factors making Canada a less equal society are deep and complex. Some are beyond the reach of government. Canada is not alone in becoming more unequal. A comprehensive report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has just explained how inequalities have been widening in almost all of its member countries, even the Scandinavian ones.

[ 200 comments : http://goo.gl/L4tLv ]

OECD calls time on trickle down theory
http://goo.gl/5Wyaq
By Nicholas Timmins
December 5, 2011
Trickle down theory is dead. The belief fostered by Ronald Reagan in the U.S. and Margaret Thatcher in the U.K. in the 1980s, that if the rich got richer, their income and wealth would trickle down the income scale so that a rising tide lifted all the boats, has had the last rites pronounced on it – by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

And now, for something completely different,
from the poison pen of Margaret Wente:

The poor are doing better than you think
http://goo.gl/jMTqg
By Margaret Wente
December 10, 2011
The news on income and inequality is depressing. The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting left behind, and the middle class is getting shafted. For most people, real incomes have been flat for decades – or so we’re told. This week, the OECD weighed in with a new report that Canada’s wealth gap is at a 30-year high. (...) In Ontario, ... 65 per cent of the bottom fifth of families by income have air conditioning. Seventy per cent have DVD players, 65 per cent have cable TV, 56 per cent have home computers and 98.9 per cent have colour TVs."

[ 555 comments : http://goo.gl/LjEsN ]
My favourite comment (by Gilles):
"Color TV, Car and wow...I guess compared to some Bedouin, our poor are doing great !! (...) I used to read the Globe as a counterbalance to some of the other papers but with this type of dimwitted, elitist, self serving, morally bankrupt drivel being put to post, I really have to wonder if the G&M has finally gone around the bend of reality. Shame on her and more importantly shame on the Globe & Mail for continuing to humour this woman by paying her to write nonsense."

Source:
Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

---

A Modest Reply to "horrifically brain-dead stupid" Margaret Wente
http://sixthestate.net/?p=3031
December 11th, 2011
Quote-of-the-day award goes to Sixth Estate [ sixthestate.net ]:
"I think the real problem is that Margaret Wente is an ignorant, patronizing, useless purveyor of plagiarized bullshit who singularly makes her mostly dim-witted columnist colleagues on the increasingly neuron-starved editorial page of the Grope & Flail look like Albert Einstein."
(I couldn't have said it better - Gilles)

Oh, and one last comment:

According to Wente, "...the incomes of U.S. middle-class families rose by more than 50 per cent in real terms between 1980 and 2009. Poor families fared almost as well."

According to this U.S. inflation calculator:
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/
...and this Canadian inflation calculator:
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculator/
...the cost of living went up by 150% from 1980 to 2009 in both the U.S. and Canada.
[So much for fair and balanced reporting. G&M = Fox News North]

United States

From the
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
http://www.cbpp.org/

Income Inequality Series: Parts 1-5
http://www.offthechartsblog.org/tag/income-inequality-series/
November 28, 2011

A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality (14 pages)
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3629
By Chad Stone, Hannah Shaw, Danilo Trisi and Arloc Sherman
November 28, 2011
This guide consists of four sections. The first describes the commonly used sources and statistics on income and discusses their relative strengths and limitations in understanding trends in income and inequality. The second provides an overview of the trends revealed in those key data sources. The third and fourth sections supply additional information on wealth, which complements the income data as a measure of how the most well-off Americans are doing; and poverty, which measures how the least well-off Americans are doing.

Hardship in America Series: Parts 1-4
http://www.offthechartsblog.org/tag/hardship-in-america-series
November 21, 2011

More CBPP reports on Poverty and Income
http://www.cbpp.org/research/index.cfm?fa=topic&id=36

Source:
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP):
http://www.cbpp.org/
CBPP is one of the nation’s premier policy organizations working at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income

Oligarchy, American Style
By Paul Krugman
November 3, 2011
Inequality is back in the news, largely thanks to Occupy Wall Street, but with an assist from the Congressional Budget Office. And you know what that means: It’s time to roll out the obfuscators! Anyone who has tracked this issue over time knows what I mean. Whenever growing income disparities threaten to come into focus, a reliable set of defenders tries to bring back the blur. Think tanks put out reports claiming that inequality isn’t really rising, or that it doesn’t matter. Pundits try to put a more benign face on the phenomenon, claiming that it’s not really the wealthy few versus the rest, it’s the educated versus the less educated. (...) Some pundits are still trying to dismiss concerns about rising inequality as somehow foolish. But the truth is that the whole nature of our society is at stake.

[ More information about Paul Krugman + links to more of his articles ]

[ Definition of "oligarchy" from Wikipedia]

[ Comments (419) ]

Source:
New York Times

Australia

Are the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer?
28 September 2011
By Peter Whiteford
Wealth seems to be more equally distributed than income in Australia, writes Peter Whiteford, but interpreting the data can be complex. (...) it is important to monitor trends in inequality, since without reliable statistics we would not know enough about what is happening to different groups in Australian society. In order to understand real trends we need reliable statistics, which is why we should be grateful to the Australian Bureau of Statistics for continuing to collect high-quality data on income and wealth.

Peter Whiteford is a professor in the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales

Source:
Inside Story
Current affairs and culture from Australia and beyond

Related link:

Australian Policy Online

From ConnectThe DotsUSA:

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ConnectThe DotsUSA is about civics and policy basics
to inoculate folks against silly and dangerous rhetoric.
It's the antidote to bumper-sticker politics.

Five Facts You Should Know About the Wealthiest One Percent of Americans
It may shock you to learn exactly how wealthy this top 1 percent of Americans is.
October 4, 2011
As the ongoing occupation of Wall Street by hundreds of protesters enters its third week — and as protests spread to other cities such as Boston and Los Angeles — demonstrators have endorsed a new slogan: “We are the 99 percent.” This slogan refers to an economic struggle between 99 percent of Americans and the richest 1 percent of Americans, who are increasingly accumulating a greater share of the national wealth to the detriment of the middle class.

Just the Facts:
1. The Top 1 Percent of Americans Owns 40 Percent of the Nation’s Wealth
2. The Top 1 Percent of Americans Take Home 24 Percent of National Income
3. The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Own Half of the Country’s Stocks, Bonds and Mutual Funds
4. The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Have Only 5 Percent of the Nation’s Personal Debt
5. The Top 1 Percent are Taking In More of the Nation’s Income Than at Any Other Time Since the 1920s

Source:
AlterNet
AlterNet is an award-winning news magazine and online community that creates original journalism and amplifies the best of hundreds of other independent media sources. AlterNet’s aim is to inspire action and advocacy on the environment, human rights and civil liberties, social justice, media, health care issues, and more.

Related links:

We are the 99 percent
We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.

Occupy Wall St.
OccupyWallSt.org is the unofficial de facto online resource for the ongoing protests happening on Wall Street. We are an affinity group committed to doing technical support work for resistance movements.

OCCUPY TOGETHER is an unofficial hub for all of the events springing up across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall St.

American Income Equality Off the Rails- October 2010 (Malcom Gladwell on FORA.TV)
+ September 19 (2011) article ranking income inequality in the U.S. and other countries (The Atlantic)

Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian journalist, bestselling author, and speaker, currently writing for the New Yorker magazine. This video presentation is from the 2010 New Yorker Festival. Related link: U.S. Ranks Near Bottom on Income Inequality September 19, 2011 - includes the full list of indicators ("data points") considered and sources Perhaps the most politically contentious aspect of President Barack Obama's new proposed legislation, aimed to revive the still-struggling U.S. economy, is $1.5 trillion in tax increases, much of it aimed at wealthy Americans. The White House is calling this "the Buffett rule." Named for super-investor Warren Buffett's complaint that he pays a lower tax rate than some of his most menial wage employees, the legislation would be designed to ensure that anyone making more than $1 million per year will pay at least the same rate as middle-income taxpayers. Source: The Atlantic

(NOTE : The following links are to a report from late 2008 that I just [29-07-11] found on the OECD website)

Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries
October 2008
- includes media briefings, country notes and presentations
Growing Unequal? brings together a range of analyses on the distribution of economic resources in OECD countries. The evidence on income distribution and poverty covers, for the first time, all 30 OECD countries in the mid-2000s, while information on trends extending back to the mid-1980s is provided for around two-thirds of the countries. The report also describes inequalities in a range of domains (such as household wealth, consumption patterns, in-kind public services) that are typically excluded from conventional discussion about the distribution of economic resources among individuals and households.

Free preview of the complete book (310 pages)
[ Buy the book (U.S. $98) - from the OECD Bookshop ]

Related article
in the OECD Observer:

Unequal growth, unequal recession?
Whether the burden of any recession is felt by some social groups and countries more than others depends largely on public policy. Will government step up to the plate? New actions are needed

Other related links:

Country reviews : Canada
- statistical profile - economic forecast summary - country review - working papers
Source:
Country reviews (34 OECD countries)

Income Distribution and Poverty <=== links to dozens of free resources
[ Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ]

Unions and Inequality
By Andrew Jackson
June 27, 2011
An important paper by Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld which is forthcoming in the American Journal of Sociology finds that the decline in private sector union density in the US (from 34% to 8% for men, and from 16% to 6% for women) explains one fifth to one third of the increase in inequality of hourly earnings over the period 1973 to 2007. This shows declining union density to be a much greater causal factor than most studies have found. The novel contribution of the authors is to show empirically through a sophisticated quantitative analysis that a fall from high to lower union density in industrial/regional clusters is associated with rising levels of wage inequality among non union workers in those clusters.
Source:
Progressive Economics Forum

The paper:

Unions, Norms, and the Rise in
American Wage Inequality (PDF - 283K, 48 pages)
By Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld
March, 2011
"(...) We revisited the effect of declining union membership on wage inequality, arguing that unions not only equalized the wages of union members; they
also equalized the nonunion wage distribution by threatening union organization and buttressing norms for fair pay.
Source:
Department of Sociology
[ Harvard University ]

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- Go to the Union Links page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/unionbkmrk.htm

Working Group on Extreme Inequality The Working Group on Extreme Inequality began coming together in 2007. Many of the organizations involved in the Working Group had, over the years, been active in organizing against poverty and economic insecurity. That effort had helped us understand that the fight against inequality, to make significant headway, has to both “raise the floor” and challenge the concentrated wealth and power that increasingly sit at the top of our economic ladder. (...) Our work revolves around mobilization, education and advocacy. - includes links to: * About Us * Resources * Links * Why Extreme Inequality Matters * Racial Dimensions of Inequality * Tools for Narrowing the Great Divide * Commentary & Analysis * Take Action * Sign Up

Historical information on income inequality from the U.S. Census Bureau: The Changing Shape of the Nation's Income Distribution, 1947 to 1998 By Arthur F. Jones Jr. and Daniel H. Weinberg June 2000 Are the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? Complete report (PDF - 228K, 11 pages) * Tables and Figures * Historical Tables (1967 to 2009) NOTE : The first table in the list is a PDF file and the rest are Excel files, --- A Brief Look at Post-War U.S. Income Inequality By Daniel H. Weinberg June 1996 Complete report (PDF - 53K, 4 pages) * Tables and Figures * Historical Tables * Narrative on Income Inequality (Middle Class) Source: Income Inequality [ Income Data ] [ U.S. Census Bureau ]

The University of Texas Inequality Project is a small research group concerned with measuring and explaining movements of inequality in wages and earnings and patterns of industrial changes around the world. Our work so far has emphasized two techniques: the use of Theil's T statistic to compute inequality indexes from industrial data, and a combination of cluster analysis on rates of wage change and discriminant analysis to isolate the principal time patterns in changing wage structures

Education is not the cure for
high unemployment or for income inequality (PDF - 287K, 26 pages)
EPI Briefing Paper #286
By Lawrence Mishel
January 12, 2011
With signs pointing to persistent high unemployment and a recovery even weaker than those of the early 1990s and 2000s, it is becoming common to hear in the media and among some policy makers the claim that lingering unemployment is not cyclical but “structural.” In this story, the jobs problem is not a lack of demand for workers but rather a mismatch between workers’ skills and employers’ needs. Another version of the skills mismatch is also being told about the future: we face an impending skills shortage, particularly a shortfall of college graduates, after the economy returns to full employment.
Source:
Economic Policy Institute

Related link:

Degrees and Dollars
By Paul Krugman
March 6, 2011
It is a truth universally acknowledged that education is the key to economic success. Everyone knows that the jobs of the future will require ever higher levels of skill. That’s why, in an appearance Friday with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, President Obama declared that “If we want more good news on the jobs front then we’ve got to make more investments in education.” But what everyone knows is wrong. (...) The fact is that since 1990 or so the U.S. job market has been characterized not by a general rise in the demand for skill, but by “hollowing out”: both high-wage and low-wage employment have grown rapidly, but medium-wage jobs — the kinds of jobs we count on to support a strong middle class — have lagged behind. And the hole in the middle has been getting wider.
(...)
So if we want a society of broadly shared prosperity, education isn’t the answer — we’ll have to go about building that society directly. We need to restore the bargaining power that labor has lost over the last 30 years, so that ordinary workers as well as superstars have the power to bargain for good wages. We need to guarantee the essentials, above all health care, to every citizen. What we can’t do is get where we need to go just by giving workers college degrees, which may be no more than tickets to jobs that don’t exist or don’t pay middle-class wages.
Source:
New York Times

The United States of Inequality Trying to understand income inequality, the most profound change in American society in your lifetime. By Timothy Noah September 14, 2010 In the late 1970s, a half-century trend toward growing income equality reversed itself. Ever since, U.S. incomes have grown more unequal. Middle-class incomes stagnated while the top 1 percent's share of national income climbed to 24 percent. Middle-income workers no longer benefit from productivity increases, and upward mobility, long the saving grace of the American economy, has faltered. Why is this happening? In the following 10-part series, Slate's Timothy Noah weighs eight possible causes of what Princeton economist Paul Krugman has labeled the Great Divergence. This 30-year trend "may represent the most significant change in American society in your lifetime," Noah writes, "and it's not a change for the better." --- [ NOTE : this series ran in Slate Magazine from September 3 to September 15, 2010. Click the link above to access each of the ten parts below. The series is also available as a single PDF file, which I don't recommend because the text contains many useful links to related resources that aren't clickable in the PDF version. Gilles] ___ Part 1 : Introducing the Great Divergence: Trying to understand income inequality. Part 2 : The Usual Suspects Are Innocent: Neither race nor gender nor the breakdown of the American family created the Great Divergence. Part 3 : Did Immigration Create the Great Divergence? Why we can't blame income inequality on the post-1965 immigration surge. Part 4 : Did Computers Create Inequality? No. The tech boom's impact was no greater than that of previous technological upheavals during the 20th century. Part 5 : Can We Blame Income Inequality on Republicans? Yes, but for the very richest beneficiaries the trend has been bipartisan. Part 6 : The Great Divergence and the Death of Organized Labor: How has the decline of the union contributed to income inequality? Part 7 : The Great Divergence and International Trade: Trade didn't create inequality, and then it did. Part 8 : The Stinking Rich and the Great Divergence: Executive compensation took off in the 1980s and 1990s. Is it to blame? Part 9 : How the Decline in K-12 Education Enriches College Graduates: When the workforce needed to be smarter, Americans got dumber. Part 10 : Why we can't ignore growing income inequality: It undermines the ideal of e pluribus unum Source: Slate Magazine The 12 States Of America Since 1980, income inequality has fractured the nation. By Dante Chinni and James Gimpel [Chinni and Gimpel are also co-authors of Our Patchwork Nation - see "Related link" below.] Most stories about inequality in America miss an important point: rising disparities are not just about investment bankers versus auto workers. They’re about entire communities of “winners” and “losers.” And as these communities continue to diverge, the idea of “an American economy” looks more and more like an anachronism. We analyzed reams of demographic, economic, cultural, and political data to break the nation’s 3,141 counties into 12 statistically distinct “types of place.” When we look at family income over the past 30 years through that prism, the full picture of the income divide becomes clearer—and much starker. Interactive Map: Income Inequality in the U.S. Since 1980, income inequality has fractured the nation. Click the icons just above the map of the USA to see each of the dozen states*, which counties belong to them and how median income has changed from 1980 to 2009. ---------- * "States" include : Moneyed Burbs - Minority Central - Military Bastions - Evangelical Epicenters - Tractor Country - Campus and Careers + six more states ---------- Source: The Atlantic Magazine : April 2011 issue Related link: Our Patchwork Nation Co-authored by Dante Chinni and James Gimpel Patchwork Nation is a reporting project of the Jefferson Institute that aims to explore what is happening in the United States by examining different kinds of communities over time. The effort divides America's 3,141 counties into 12 community types based on certain demographic characteristics, such as income level, racial composition, employment and religion. You can read about the methodology of the project on the methodology page. --- It's the Inequality, Stupid Eleven charts that explain everything that's wrong with America. March 2011 A huge share of the nation's economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244. NOTE: includes links to sources of all data used in the charts Source: Mother Jones, March/April 2011 issue [ Mother Jones home page ] Mother Jones is a nonprofit news organization that specializes in investigative, political, and social justice reporting. We currently have two main "platforms": an award-winning bimonthly national magazine (circulation 240,000), and a website featuring new, original reporting 24-7. --- From Stanford University: Twenty Facts About U.S. Inequality that Everyone Should Know Links to 20 graphics: * Wage Inequality * CEO pay * Wealth Inequality * Education Wage Premium * Gender Pay Gaps * Occupational Sex Segregation * Racial Gaps in Education * Racial Discrimination * Poverty * Residential Segregation * Health Insurance * Intragenerational Income Mobility * Bad Jobs * Discourage Workers * Homelessness * Intergenerational Income Mobility * Deregulation of the Labor Market * Job Losses * Immigrants and Inequality * Productivity and Real Income See also: Key Issues in Poverty & Inequality - incl. links to online resources organized under the following topics: [NOTE : Only a few selected links are highlighted below. To access links to all topics, click the Key Issues links above.] * Children * Citizenship & Civil Rights * Conflict - War & Instability * Consumption & Lifestyles * Crime & the Legal System * Development Economics * Disabilities * Discrimination & Prejudice * Education * Elites * Environment * Gender * Globalization * Health & Mental Health * History of Inequality * Immigration * Income & Wealth * Labor Markets * Land - Housing & Homelessness * Lifecourse - Family & Demography * Measurement & Methodology * Organizations * Philosophy * Policy * Politics & Political Economy * Poverty * Public Opinion & Attitudes * Race & Ethnicity * Sexual Orientation * Social Class & Occupations * Social Mobility * Social Networks * Theory * Transportation * Future of Inequality Source: Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality The Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality has five objectives: to monitor trends in poverty and inequality, to support scientific analysis of poverty and inequality, to develop science-based policy on poverty and inequality, to disseminate data and research on poverty and inequality, and to train the next generation of scholars, policy analysts, and politicians [ Stanford University ]

Income Gaps Between Very Rich and Everyone Else
More Than Tripled In Last Three Decades, New Data Show
By Arloc Sherman and Chad Stone
June 25, 2010
HTML version
PDF version (516K, 7 pages)
The gaps in after-tax income between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the middle and poorest fifths of the country more than tripled between 1979 and 2007 (the period for which these data are available), according to recent data from the Congressional Budget Office. Taken together with prior research, the new data suggest greater income concentration at the top of the income scale than at any time since 1928.

Top 1% Leaving Others in the Dust
June 25, 2010
After-tax incomes nearly quadrupled for the top 1 percent of Americans in the last three decades, while barely rising among middle- and lower-income households, according to new data from the Congressional Budget Office.
(...) The new CBO data — the most comprehensive numbers available on income inequality — only go through 2007, so they don’t show the impact of the recession and the stock market plunge. These events may have reduced inequality somewhat by shrinking incomes the most at the top, as the bursting of the dot.com bubble did a decade ago

Source:
Off the Charts Blog
[ Center on Budget and Policy Priorities ]
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy organization working at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals.

Related links:

Average Federal Tax Rates in 2007 (PDF - 65K, 7 pages)
June 2010
Source:
Congressional Budget Office

Income Gaps Hit Record Levels In 2006, New Data Show
Rich-Poor Gap Tripled Between 1979 and 2006
April 17, 2009
By Arloc Sherman
"New data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show that in 2006, the top 1 percent of households had a larger share of the nation’s after-tax income, and the middle and bottom fifths of households had smaller shares, than in any year since 1979, the first year the CBO data cover. As a result, the gaps in after-tax incomes between households in the top 1 percent and those in the middle and bottom fifths were the widest on record."

HTML - http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2789
PDF - http://www.cbpp.org/files/4-17-09inc.pdf (6pp.)

Source:
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The Review of Income and Wealth, 1966-2000
Journal of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth
"The major objectives of The Review of Income and Wealth are the furthering of research on national and economic and social accounting, including the development of concepts and definitions for the measurement and analysis of income and wealth, the development and further integration of systems of economic and social statistics, and related problems of statistical methodology"
- incl. links to full text of back issues of the journal from 1966 to 2000, with several dozen studies in each issue
- wide range of topics, including : income inequality - measuring poverty and deprivation - pension wealth - income mobility - how best to measure welfare, real income, and output - poverty indices and policy analysis - relative or absolute poverty lines - demographic trends - much more...
Source:
International Association for Research in Income and Wealth (IARIW)
IARIW's major objectives:
- the furthering of research on economic and social accounting, including the development of concepts and definitions for the measurement and analysis of income and wealth
- the development and further integration of systems of economic and social statistics
- related problems of statistical methodology

August 25, 2008
Inequality Matters
Kate Bell provides analysis of new research that shows it’s not just poverty that affects children’s outcomes—it’s inequality, too.
Source:
Center for American Progress Task Force on Poverty

Our Inequality of Outcomes
By Steven Pearlstein
August 27, 2008
Hey, good news on the income front: The Census Bureau reported yesterday that median earnings for full-time male workers rose by $1,653 last year, to $45,113, after adjusting for inflation. Another year like that, and maybe the typical male worker will finally catch up to where he was in 1973.
Source:
Washington Post

PULLING APART: A State-by-State Analysis of Income Trends
April 2008
by Jared Bernstein, Elizabeth McNichol, and Andrew Nicholas

"The gap between the richest and poorest families...grew significantly in most states over the past two decades...In fact, the nation’s longstanding trend of growing inequality accelerated since the late 1990s as incomes fell for poor families in a number of states."

Press Release (with state contacts):
Income Inequality Grew in Most States Over Past Two Decades: Low-Income Families Lost Ground Since Late 1990s
April 9, 2008
http://www.cbpp.org/4-9-08sfp-pr.htm
http://www.cbpp.org/4-9-08sfp-pr.pdf (5pp.)

Report:
http://www.cbpp.org/4-9-08sfp.htm (executive summary)
http://www.cbpp.org/4-9-08sfp.pdf (74pp.)

State-by-State Fact Sheets:
http://www.cbpp.org/4-9-08sfp-states.htm

State Data Tables:
http://www.cbpp.org/08state-datatables.xls

Source:
Center for American Progress Task Force on Poverty

Income inequality hits record levels, new CBO data show
Incomes Rose $180,000 for Top 1 Percent in 2005 But Just $400 for Middle-Income Households
December 14, 2007
By Arloc Sherman
[PDF version - 4 pages]
Real after-tax incomes jumped by an average of nearly $180,000 for the top 1 percent of households in 2005, while rising just $400 for middle-income households and $200 for lower-income households, according to new data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Taken together with prior research, the new data indicate that income is now more concentrated at the top than at any time since 1929.
Other highlights of the CBO data show that as of 2005:
* The share of the nation’s total after-tax income going to the top 1 percent of households more than doubled and hit the highest level on record (with data back to 1979).
* The share of national after-tax income going to the middle fifth of households (the middle 20 percent) was the smallest on record.
* Similarly, the share of national after-income tax going to households in the bottom fifth was the smallest on record.
The $180,000 average income gain for these households in 2005 is more than three times the average middle-income household’s total income.

Source:
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)

Also from CBPP:

New CBO Data show income inequality continues to widen:
After-Tax-Income for Top 1 Percent Rose by $146,000 in 2004
January 23, 2007
By Arloc Sherman and Aviva Aron-Dine
The Congressional Budget Office recently released extensive data on household incomes for 2004.[1] CBO issues the most comprehensive and authoritative data available on the levels of and changes in incomes and taxes for different income groups, capturing trends at the very top of the income scale that are not shown in Census data.

Wage Inequality, Earnings Inequality and Poverty
in the U.S. Over the Last Quarter of the Twentieth Century
Peter Gottschalk (Boston College), Sheldon Danziger (University of Michigan)
This paper tracks distributional changes over the last quarter of the twentieth century. We focus on three conceptually distinct distributions: the distribution of wages, the distribution of annual earnings and the distribution of total family income adjusted for family size. We show that all three distributions became less equal during the last half of the 1970's and the 1980's. This was, however, not the case during the 1990's. Wage inequality stabilized, earnings inequality declined and family income inequality actually continued to rise. We decompose changes in family income inequality over the last quarter century and show that roughly half of the increase is accounted for by changes in the distribution of earnings. This suggests that further research on family income inequality should pay as much attention to changes in the distribution of other income sources as to factors affecting the labor market.
Complete report (PDF file - 2.5MB, 61 pages)
May 2003
Source:
eScholarship@BC [Boston College)
A Digital Institutional Repository for Boston College

What about the wealth gap in the U.S.?

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
May 2011 issue of Vanity Fair
Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.
Source:
Vanity Fair - May 2011 issue
[ Vanity Fair - home page ]

Income Inequality: Too Big to Ignore
By Robert H. Frank
October 16, 2010
People often remember the past with exaggerated fondness. Sometimes, however, important aspects of life really were better in the old days. During the three decades after World War II, for example, incomes in the United States rose rapidly and at about the same rate — almost 3 percent a year — for people at all income levels. America had an economically vibrant middle class. Roads and bridges were well maintained, and impressive new infrastructure was being built. People were optimistic. By contrast, during the last three decades the economy has grown much more slowly, and our infrastructure has fallen into grave disrepair. Most troubling, all significant income growth has been concentrated at the top of the scale. The share of total income going to the top 1 percent of earners, which stood at 8.9 percent in 1976, rose to 23.5 percent by 2007, but during the same period, the average inflation-adjusted hourly wage declined by more than 7 percent.
Source
New York Times

Top 1% Increased Their Share of Wealth in Financial Crisis (U.S.)
April 30, 2010
By Robert Frank
Many economists and journalists, myself included, assumed inequality would decline during the global financial crisis. The rich tend to be the bi-polars of the economy, reaping the most when times are good and losing the most (on a percentage basis) during busts. (...) New calculations by Edward Wolff, the New York University economist and an expert on U.S. wealth statistics, show that the top 1% actually held onto its share of national wealth in the crisis, and may have even gained a bit.
Source:
The Wealth Report

Enabling Families to Weather Emergencies and Develop:
The Role of Assets
By Signe-Mary McKernan, Caroline Ratcliffe
Posted to Web: July 16, 2008
Abstract
Low-wage jobs can be unstable, leaving families struggling to cope with employment gaps and financial emergencies that can strike without warning. About four in five low-income families are "asset poor," lacking enough liquid savings to live for three months at the federal poverty level without earnings. In this essay, McKernan and Ratcliffe suggest a cluster of policies that would improve financial markets and savings opportunities for low-income families across the life cycle.

Complete report:

Enabling Families to Weather Emergencies and Develop:
The Role of Assets (PDF - 285K, 30 pages)
"(...) This essay proposes five complementary types of asset policies that enable families to weather emergencies and promote their long-term development:
1. Increase regulation of small loans, preferably with a savings component, to help families with few assets weather an emergency.
2. Match children’s accounts and EITC savings (when deposited into longer-term savings accounts, such as IDAs, or when used to buy U.S. savings bonds) to incentivize savings, help low-income working families get a toehold in the financial world, and increase financial literacy.
3. Allow incentivized savings accounts to be used for vehicle ownership and set up a national grants program to expand ownership of reliable vehicles.
4. Modify the mortgage interest tax deduction and increase oversight of “nonbanks” so low-income working families receive some of the same incentives and protections that higher-income families receive when buying a home.
5. Promote retirement savings through automatic IRAs to provide low-income working families with easy access to a retirement savings mechanism and thus a more secure retirement."

Source:
A New Safety Net for Low-Income Families
[ The Urban Institute - Washington ]

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