Canada – Inequality is growing

The data is in: the rich are getting richer in Canada, and their slice of the pie shows no sign of shrinking. Increasingly, economists are calling for action to even things up.

“We have data on income concentration [in Canada] over the last 30 years,” said Kevin Milligan, a professor of economics at the University of British Columbia. “What we see from that is that the farther you go up the income ladder, the top 1%, the top 10th of 1%, the top 100th of 1%, more and more growth in income tends to be happening.”

In a published November 25 TD Bank economists Craig Alexander and Francis Fong warned that growing income inequality, which is part of a global trend, could pose serious threats to the Canadian economy in the future. Those consequences include stalled social mobility, with people unable to move up the income ladder, as well as less risk-taking and innovation.

Rising income inequality can also slow economic growth, which  tends to lead to even greater inequality.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Inequality in Canada is growing. Here are some fixes | Business in Vancouver.