Australian Economic Inequality, HILDA: A Report Reveals a Seizing Digit



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AUSTRALIA has been trapped in its claim that it is the land of the fair, as surprising new figures show that we are anything but …

The Analysis shows that the first percent of Australian employees earn as much in It also shows that the richest 20% of Australian households own 62% of all wealth, while the poorest 50% have only 18% – and this level Blatant inequality will have a profoundly negative impact on our overall quality of life if we do not tackle it head on now.

That's the gloomy warning from researchers at the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) and UNSW Sydney that says the current situation is "unacceptable and harmful" to the Australian way of life. And it will get worse if we do not do anything about it.

"Our finding that those with the highest percentage earn as much in a fortnight as those in the bottom five percent in a year deeply" The Australian experience of recent decades shows that the # 39, inequality has risen sharply in times of economic boom and has flattened out with a slower economy and slow wage growth, "said Dr. Cbadandra Goldie, CEO of ACOSS. We should not accept the increase in inequality as an inevitable by-product of growth. "

The figures also show that the richest 20% live in households with five times more income ( $ 3978 per week on average). At the other end of the scale, the richest 1% have an average weekly income 26 times higher than the lowest 5%.

It also shows that the average household wealth of the group of 20% the highest is $ 2.9 million, five times that of the average 20% and almost a hundred times that of the lowest 20%, or $ 30,000. Peter Saunders, a professor of social policy, said that the level of inequality uncovered in the study will surprise many people.

"Excessive inequality is unacceptable and harmful to society and the economy," he said. "When low-income and low-income people are left behind, they struggle to reach a socially acceptable level and to participate in society. This causes divisions in our society.

"As the OECD and the IMF have pointed out in recent years, too many inequalities are as damaging to the economy.

" When resources and power are concentrated in too few hands, are too impoverished to participate effectively in the paid labor force, or acquire the skills to do so, economic growth is diminished. "

THE SKY DOES NOT FALL

However, the figures were contradicted by a comprehensive annual household welfare survey conducted by the Melbourne Institute, which shows that the number of Australians living in poverty are declining, with child poverty reaching its lowest level from 2001 to 2016.

Roger Wilkins, Director According to the HILDA survey (Household Household and Labor Dynamics Australia), the numbers show that the disadvantage in Australia is decreasing.

This is because the numbers show that high incomes have dropped over the past five years .Integrade inflation – from 1.97 times the median income in 2011 was 1.9 times in 2016.

In 2009, the median income was at least 2.21 times higher than that of the bottom 10%, but this margin has now fallen to 1.97 times. 19659003] "All this language about the falling sky, in Many of the struggling households and the spread of disadvantage, is not confirmed by the evidence, "said Professor Wilkins . Australian .

"We do not see the tremendous improvement in revenues that we have seen in the period up to the global financial crisis, but we do not see anything as we have seen in the recession of 1991. " [19659003] However, the same research also shows that the typical Australian household has not seen their after-tax real income increase since 2009.

At the time, the median household had a disposable income of 79 $ 160, at 2016 levels. [19659003] And in 2016, the last year of available HILDA data, the median income was just over $ 79,244.

UNDER EMPLOYMENT AND THE ECONOMY "GIG"

Alarmingly, the latest HILDA data also show spike in underemployment across the Australian economy "From 2001 to 2008, participation in employment had increased and unemployment had decreased, "wrote the report's authors.

"Since then, the labor market has been relatively flat, with the proportions of men and women in employment remaining below their peaks in 2008 and the proportions of unemployed remaining above the 2008 low." [19659003] For men aged 18 to 64, the part-time employment rate increased from 10 to 14 percent from 2008 to 2016.

Over the same period, employment at Full-time fell from 73.3% in 2008 to 67% in 2016 and full-time employment among women aged 18 to 64 was also slightly below 40% in 2008.

The authors of report also say that data debunk the myth of so-called-gig economy growth – for companies like Uber where employees are technically independent.

This is because the data show that self-employment actually dropped signi HILDA survey shows that, if the economy of growth has ugmente as fast as it is generally believed, then either it involves the substitution of one type of freelancer for another (as it could happen in "This coincidence of the decline in the number of employers with high employment rates suggests that self-employment is not the engine of employment growth that so often claims

"Less clear is the source of this decline. The most likely explanations, however, lie in factors such as globalization and the technological changes that have favored large firms. "

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