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A paper released last week by University of British Columbia economicsprofessors sheds new light on income inequality trends in Canada,who the top earners are and what policies might best address thecountry s growing income gap. They find, broadly speaking, that income distribution has not beenthis uneven in Canada since the dark days of the GreatDepression. The ratcheting-up of inequality in Canada is real, the 43-pagepaper says. Whatever else it achieved, the Occupy movement shonea light on our growing inequality. Income inequality has been hotly debated in the past year, and araft of recent studies has shown it is widening in most advancedeconomies. Growing income disparity has been linked withdeteriorating outcomes for health-care, crime and long-termeconomic growth. In Canada, about 8 per cent of the country's total income wasconcentrated in the hands of 1 per cent of the population back inthe late 1970s. In recent years, that almost doubled to 14 percent, the UBC paper said, which is based in part on details fromthe 2006 long-form census. Reasons for the growing chasm vary. The wage gap between those witha university degree and those with just high school is widening.Younger workers are facing worse earnings prospects than ageneration ago. Outsourcing, declining unionization rates andtechnological change may also be playing a role. Policies that could narrow the gap include closing tax loopholes,hiking taxes on the richest 1 per cent and increasing refundabletax credits to lower-income Canadians, the authors say. Making theeducation system more flexible and reducing high school dropoutrates could help support the middle class. Here are some more of the findings from the study, entitled Canadian Inequality: Recent Development and Policy Options : The top 1 per cent of earners amount to 275,000 individuals. Fifty-two percent of people in the top 1 per cent work at least 50hours a week, compared to less than 20 per cent for the overallpopulation. One needs an annual income of at least $230,000 to be part of thetop 1 per cent. The average income in this group is $450,000,compared to only $36,000 for the whole Canadian population. One could safely call this a brotherhood -- 83 per cent of those inthe top 1 per cent are men. So despite the significant gainsrealized by women over the last few decades, they remaindramatically underrepresented at the very top of the incomedistribution. Young people (under age 35) are also underrepresented in the topincome group, though this may just be transitory as most haven'tyet reached their peak life-cycle earnings. Fifty-eight percent of individuals at the top have at least abachelors degree, a greater proportion than the broaderpopulation, where 19 per cent of the adult population areuniversity graduates. Top earners hail from a variety of sectors. Just 10 per cent ofpeople in the top 1 per cent work in the finance and insuranceindustry (despite garnering most of the public s wrath). Seniormanagers and CEOs are over-represented in the top group, but stillonly account for 14 per cent of top earners. The only other largegroup of top income earners? Physicians, dentists and veterinarianswho comprise almost 10 per cent of top earners, despiterepresenting less than 1 per cent of the workforce. The paper was jointly written by UBC s Nicole Fortin, David Green,Thomas Lemieux, Kevin Milligan and Craig Riddell for the CanadianLabour Market and Skills Researcher Network. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Clutch Friction Disc Manufacturer , Bellows Boots, and more. For more , please visit Rubber Ring Seals today!
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