Canada’s income gap growing

The Toronto Star:

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?

Social policy experts who have been raising the alarm over Canada’s growing income gap since 2006, say the Conference Board report represents a watershed.

The Conference Board report examines various measures of inequality, including median income, the point at which half of earners have more income and half earn less.

The report notes that between 1976 and 2009, the median income rose by just 5.5 per cent from $45,800 to $48,300.

While the poor didn’t get poorer according to real income levels, they did get poorer in a relative sense, says the report.

Between 1976 and 2009 the earnings gap between the lowest 20 per cent and the top 20 per cent of earners grew from $92,300 to $177,500, showing that income growth is being distributed unequally.

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