Top 10% have incomes 12 times greater than bottom 10%, up from eight times greater in 1985, thinktank's study revealsIncome inequality among working-age people has risen faster in Britain than in any other rich nation since the mid-1970s, according to a report by the OECD.
The thinktank says the gap has come about due to the rise of a financial services elite who, through education and marriage, have concentrated wealth into the hands of a tiny minority.
Economists from the group, which is funded by developed-world taxpayers, say the annual average income in the UK of the top 10% in 2008 was just under £55,000, about 12 times higher than that of the bottom 10%, who had an average income of £4,700.
This is up from a ratio of eight to one in 1985 and significantly higher than the average income gap in developed nations of nine to one.
However, the report makes clear that even in countries viewed as "fairer" – such as Germany, Denmark and Sweden – this pay gap between rich and poor is expanding: from five to one in the 1980s to six to one today. In the rising powers of Brazil, Russia, India and China, the ratio is an alarming 50 to one.
Read more here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/dec/05/income-inequality-growing-faster-uk
