If you’re rich but would like to be richer then come to Canada.
That, in a nutshell, is one of the key findings of an OECD study that looks at the the richest 1% across the developed world and how they got their money.
According to the OECD, the top percentile of wealthy Canadians captured a whopping 37% of income growth over the past three decades, more than any other country except the United States.
There’s no question that when it comes to income disparity Canada is one of the stars of the show. But, more than anywhere else, Canada’s richest 1% earn their living from their jobs rather than from investment or other income.
The top 1% earned at least 65% of their income in the form of salaries, with the rest coming from business income and capital investments, the study said. For their peers in the U.S., the figure was 60%, in France it was 55% and in Italy 45%.
And for almost every country except Canada, the richer the rich become, the bigger the chunk of their income made up by investments. In this country, by contrast, the trend moved in the opposite direction.
One explanation is that Canada has a lot of well paid professional jobs and that’s how the top 1% make their living.
It’s important to keep in mind that the income figures are all pre-tax, so real take-home results may be different from the numbers in the study.
[Image: http://i.imgur.com/HNyv7Qd.jpg]
More here: http://business.financialpost.com/2014/04/30/oecd-canada-wealth-gap/
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I thought this was pretty interesting and very encouraging. If you're moderately talented and are wise enough to put in effort into the right things, there's a good chance you'll be very well off, if not at the top.
People often misinterpret income inequality and confuse and/or lump it together with wealth inequality. I think that's a real shame; there's nothing wrong with people earning through work what they're worth to the economy. These people should not be confused with those who've obtained their wealth through inheritance and the like.