All Posts Tagged With: "income inequality"
Rich face tax hikes, women drink more & bye-bye books
What students are talking about today (January 2nd)
Some OWS supporters wanted taxes raised on the rich. That will happen in 2013. (j.dubb/Flickr)
1. If 2011 was the year of Occupy Wall Street, 2013 may be the year that the rich get punished, if only just a little bit. The United States avoided its “fiscal cliff” after Congress passed a deal that includes tax increases for those who make more than $450,000—roughly the richest one per cent. They will now pay just under 40 per cent income tax, up from about 35 per cent. Meanwhile in France—where Socialist president Francois Hollande has made no attempt to hide his distaste for the rich—the country’s highest court, citing unfairness, rejected a top tax rate of 75 per cent. The French government plans to try again. In Canada the tax increases are more equitable: everyone will pay more in Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance premiums this year. Yay!
2. Meanwhile, the CCPA reports that the typical executive among Canada’s top 100 highest paid will earn the equivalent of the median Canadian paycheque—$46,000—by noon today. The good news for OWS supporters is that average executive pay fell eight per cent last year to $7.7 million. And this might make you feel better about your future earnings: $34,000 puts you in the richest one per cent globally, according to a World Bank economist. The median salary worldwide is $1,225.
Continue reading Rich face tax hikes, women drink more & bye-bye books
Government transfers mitigate income inequality
But after-tax inequality still rose 13.5 per cent since 1981
perthhdproductions/Flickr
Government matters—a lot—when it comes to income inequality, a new study suggests.
Researchers at the Ottawa-based Centre for the Study of Living Standards looked at how much taxes and government benefits helped to even things out between the rich and the poor in Canada over the past three decades.
They found that taxes and spending have persistently dampened inequality, but not enough to stop the increase in inequality over time.
And they found there is still ample room for governments to be more aggressive in using policy to reduce inequality, since redistribution efforts appear to be far lower here than in other industrialized countries.
Continue reading Government transfers mitigate income inequality
