Via In These Times.com: Gap Between Rich and Poor Continues to Grow Across Industrialized World. Excerpt:
Income inequality has increased in most developing countries in part due to technological advances and globalization, according to a new paper from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The gap between the rich and the poor has long been a problem in the United States, but even countries that have had historically low rates of inequality like Germany, Sweden and Denmark have seen the fastest rise in disparate income levels over the last past decade.
In a report published Tuesday, the Paris-based think tank wrote that among its member countries, the richest 10 percent of the population makes nine times the amount of the poorest 10 percent. The income ratio is generally lower in continental European and Nordic countries, but rises to around 14:1 in the United States, Israel and Turkey. Chile and Mexico are among the highest with a 27:1 ratio.
The report, measuring data from the mid-1980s to the late 2000s, found that top income earners became richer while more moderate to low-income have gone in the opposite direction. Disposable household income grew in all OECD countries, but the top 10 percent rose at a faster annual average (2 percent) than the bottom 10 percent (1.4 percent).
The paper also found that working hours for lower-wage workers fell more dramatically than high-wage earners, leading to greater inequality. That speaks to the larger trend of globalization having created a greater demand for high-skilled labor. The increase of technological developments in the last two decades has left out lower-skilled workers.
Here's the report: Download OECD on Inequality
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