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Richest 1% now hog 12.2% of all income while average wages have remained flat for 30 years.
Ottawa (6 Aug. 2009) - The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) has put out a video providing an overview of "Canada's growing gap" between the incomes of the rich and the poor.
Normally, the gap increases during tough times because workers lose jobs and the impact on incomes is felt disproportionately at the bottom end. However, the gap should narrow in good times if the economy is operating fairly.
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This has not happened in recent years, the CCPA adds.
Instead, between 1998 and 2006, when times were booming, the average income of CEOs rose to 259 times the level of an average worker's wages while the wages of average workers remained flat – as they have been for the last three decades.
"The lion's share of Canada's economic growth went to the richest 10%," the video says, noting that the situatiuon is even more glaring when the richest 1% is considered.
"Over the past generation the share of income going to the richest 1% soared (now accounting for 12.2% of all income) but most Canadian familes (80%) had to settle for a smaller share of income," it says.
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