Wage inequality 'getting worse' in leading economies

[davieG]

The divide between the wages of the rich and the poor is growing in nearly all of the world's leading economies, according to think tank the OECD.

Researchers examined 22 countries and found that inequality grew in 17 of them between the 1980s and the financial crisis of 2008.

Chile, Mexico, Turkey and the United States were the most unequal nations.

Inequality rose fastest in the the UK - it peaked in 2000, then fell, but is now rising again.

Even traditionally egalitarian countries such as Germany, Denmark and Sweden have experienced a growing wealth gap in recent decades.

The OECD found that globally, the richest 10% of the population earns nine times more than the poorest 10%.

'No trickle down'In the UK, the richest 1% has seen their incomes double since the 1970s.

The average annual income for the richest 10% of British people in 2008 was £55,000 - which is 12 times higher than the average for the bottom 10%.

Launching the report in Paris, OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria said: "This study dispels the assumptions that the benefits of economic growth will automatically trickle down to the disadvantaged and that great inequality fosters social mobility.

"Without a comprehensive strategy for inclusive growth, inequality will continue to rise."

The OECD say that changes in the labour market over the last 30 years are to blame.

They claim that technology has benefited the highest paid while poorer workers have been forced to take jobs that are temporary, part-time or badly paid. Self-employed workers also tend to earn less.

Similar trends were observed in periods of growth and during recessions.

The organisation recommends that governments around the world invest to create better quality jobs and to improve the skills of workers.

Mr Gurria said: "Our report clearly indicates that upskilling of the workforce is by far the most powerful instrument to counter rising inequality."

[purpleronnie]

The average annual income for the richest 10% of British people in 2008 was £55,000

[AjcW]

This topic really hits a nerve with me for some reason...

The fact is people know what type of job/career they are getting in to when they take it on, and most of the type they know how much or how little they will be earning.

I think that most of the gap is created by the fact that most of the people at the top end of the scale have had to work harder to get to where they are today(granted not all of them). The fact is being a doctor requires more dedication to learning and academic intelligence and people who become doctors dedicate nearly 10 years of their life to getting to that point. Similarly to someone who wants to be at the top of their game in business, through university and masters degrees and spending hours networking and creating contacts. Whereas a Nurse(through a short college course) and a salesman can become that the second they leave school.(Thats not me saying they are any less important, and of course Nurses should be paid more, but they are not, and thats how it is, and thats how they knew it was when they chose to become a nurse.

I think the gap exists as somewhat of a payback for the investment and dedication the majority of people at the top of the scale have put in to getting where they are today.

I think its just a subject that annoys me as much as people complaining they cant get jobs, the fact is that im still young and im still at uni but everyday i try and make valuable contacts that will set me up after I graduate because I want to be successful, the problem is most(again not all) of the jobless think that the only way to get a job these days is through a piss poor CV and the job centre! Jesus guys get into the 21st century, websites like LinkedIn are goldmines for jobs, employers even encourage links to peoples twitter now to see whether they are the sort of person suitable for their organisation.

I think im just fed up of all the moaning on a new topic each day! Just boring! If your not happy with your job go back and retrain and find something new, get creative dont just moan and mope around and make everyone else's life a misery!!

I want good news storys tomorrow DavieG... more of that Antarctica stuff.

[Rincewind]

Good luck on getting past 100 or so other applicants for your chosen career. What do you suggest for someone that has worked 45 years in an unskilled job and despite searching online jobsites, newspapers job centres agencies having applications ignored being told by agencies that they have stopped taking people on their books, goiung for an eight hour week job as a litter picker and finding out that there were another 40 applicants to come after you.

Admittedly it helps if your CV is decent or you have qualifications and it may move you up a few places up in the queue for a job and may even get you an interview or you could find a place where people are not being made redundant or if you are willing to do two persons jobs for the wages of one or if you are in the right age group there are jobs.

At my age I may be lucky. I have aching bones and cannot move about like I used to. I cannot do jobs that the young can. So maybe I can retire early and let one of the 1 million 18-25 unemployed apply for a vacancy that I cannot do. I am not moaning but will be happy to do this after 45 years of work and paying into the system. Maybe I can something back in some way.

I have found out that you can look for jobs via the telly. Went onto virgin 2333 which is a local community channel, scrolled through the menus and found the Leicester job site. Looked at 10-15 jobs and found one possibility. Most of the others I need transport and I dont drive or extra qualifications are needed. Even the one I applied for wont be suitable if its in the county or wrong hours and its only 20-30 hrs pw.. I am awaiting a reply off two other applications from over a week ago. One has been advertising the same job for six months which is 60 hrs a week.

[Trav Le Bleu]

My boss doesn't agree.

[Webbo]

I only worry about what I earn, if someone is earning more than me, as long as it's not coming out of my pocket, I couldn't care less. Good luck to them.

[AjcW]

Like I said.... Not everyone .

[Finnegan]

Can some other lefty take this one for me please?

I'm fucking bored of arguing about this lately and if I have to read one more person implying the jobless are entirely to blame for their own situation I'm going to go postal.

[Rincewind]

I think there are some that imply it until they are jobless themselves. Some not all.

I don't think it has anything to do with being left or right just noticing what the situation is like for others beside yourself.

[AjcW]

Can some other lefty take this one for me please?

I'm fucking bored of arguing about this lately and if I have to read one more person implying the jobless are entirely to blame for their own situation I'm going to go postal.

Didn't say entirely though did I......

[Finnegan]

Didn't say entirely though did I......

Oh, right, yeah, that's okay then.

[dave the caveman]

Oh, right, yeah, that's okay then.

I know you're tired of preaching your softly softly ballet loving we-should-all-bend-over-in-front-of-ugly-people-and-take-it-up-the-arse-because-it-isn't-fair-that-they-cant-get-laid philosophy and all, but care to explain what exactly was wrong with his post? He did make a point of using 'most' thus implying that he had allowed room for the minority at the bottom of the ladder who simply aren't able, for one reason or another, to get any higher.

[ousefox]

I only worry about what I earn, if someone is earning more than me, as long as it's not coming out of my pocket, I couldn't care less. Good luck to them.

It is coming out of your pocket to an extent through surplus value..

Oh and the argument that most of the top 1% have got there through hard work doesn't work for me. The majority will have inherited it or come from very privelaged backgrounds making it a lot easier to get there than any old person.

[fatboytim]

To some extent I agree with Aj. The fact is that doctors etc get to the top by being dedicated, whereas many people leave school as soon as possible not having really achieved anything and go into dead-end jobs. So it's not entirely surprising that they tend to not get paid as much. However, those who do well and go on to top uni's and achieve, tend to come from more privileged backgrounds. Again though, not entirely surprising because we all want to give our kids the very best in life that we can, don't we? So, rightly or wrongly, being born into a more affluent family does tend to make it easier to do well in life. The question is how far do we let it go before we decide it's gone too far? How many talented kids do we let fall by the wayside because they are being denied the opportunities which others have, just because of how well off their parents are? And is wage inequality really that much of a problem, when the very wealthiest members of our society are so wealthy they don't have to work and actually live on unearned income?

Grates on me though, when it is said that people can become nurses after a short course. This is not the case. To become a nurse today, you need to have a degree in nursing (which incorporates academic subjects such as biology and maths, as well as doing work placements), so decent 'A' level results are needed, the same as they would be for any course at uni.

[AjcW]

Grates on me though, when it is said that people can become nurses after a short course. This is not the case. To become a nurse today, you need to have a degree in nursing (which incorporates academic subjects such as biology and maths, as well as doing work placements), so decent 'A' level results are needed, the same as they would be for any course at uni.

Sorry about that last bit thought I might of been wrong on that one but couldn't think of a comparable career to doctors other than that!

[Rincewind]

When I was 15, school leaving age, not every kid did GSCE. IAt my school it was only the top two forms that did them. Also university places mostly went to those at grammar schools. I worked on Abbey Park for four month then went to a hosiery warehouse where I did many juniuor type jobs before moving on to piece work pissing about with socks making two matched in size (very difficult job) Redundancy after about 30 years then seven years as a security officer. So at 60 the only skills that I have is with socks and the hosiery industry is fecked in this country and an industry where the minimum hours required is 48 and from talking with some I know in the industry there is little work in thisa unless you are able to drive and willing to travel uop to 20 mile each way starting and finishing at strange hours.

To my credit I did a GCSC and Spanish at night school (C & D I think) and a ECDL which is worth naff all compared to A and O levels and degrees. I have no regrets though and am looking foward to my retirement.

[AjcW]

When I was 15, school leaving age, not every kid did GSCE. IAt my school it was only the top two forms that did them. Also university places mostly went to those at grammar schools. I worked on Abbey Park for four month then went to a hosiery warehouse where I did many juniuor type jobs before moving on to piece work pissing about with socks making two matched in size (very difficult job) Redundancy after about 30 years then seven years as a security officer. So at 60 the only skills that I have is with socks and the hosiery industry is fecked in this country and an industry where the minimum hours required is 48 and from talking with some I know in the industry there is little work in thisa unless you are able to drive and willing to travel uop to 20 mile each way starting and finishing at strange hours.

To my credit I did a GCSC and Spanish at night school (C & D I think) and a ECDL which is worth naff all compared to A and O levels and degrees. I have no regrets though and am looking foward to my retirement.

Good for you! And like I said you are most definitely one of the minority.

[Finnegan]

I know you're tired of preaching your softly softly ballet loving we-should-all-bend-over-in-front-of-ugly-people-and-take-it-up-the-arse-because-it-isn't-fair-that-they-cant-get-laid philosophy and all, but care to explain what exactly was wrong with his post? He did make a point of using 'most' thus implying that he had allowed room for the minority at the bottom of the ladder who simply aren't able, for one reason or another, to get any higher.

My problem is tone, attitude, his entire approach and the fact that it's straight out of Daily Mail Reader 101 (and the fact he's a boy still in the education system who, forgive my making assumptions here, hasn't had to go through a demanding job search simply makes it worse.)

Across the country there are thousands (probably millions) of people unaffected by the job shortages who are, from their position of comfort, preaching that the jobless are idle 'moaners' who just need to 'sort themselves out.' It doesn't matter whether he qualifies "oh, not all of them!" because "most" is bad enough.

People are all too eager to turn around and the point the finger at some mythical stereotype of "the out of work" and simply lay the blame at their feet without considering why so many people can't actually get a job. Let's say, for a moment, that AJ is on to something and that a lot of people think that the only way to get a job is to have a CV and go to the Job Centre - why is that simply enough to lambaste them? Why are we looking at this as a failing of the people themselves and not the system that made them this way?

What you have to consider here is the needs of the long-term unemployed and why most of these people are unemployed to begin with. I was heavily involved with the Future Jobs Fund project under the previous government and what most of us noticed who worked with the scheme was that we were working with large, large groups of (predominantly) young men who had no idea how to present a CV, how to manage an interview or - most worryingly - how to even conduct a job search. This wasn't a failing of them as individuals or the result of laziness, as many are happy to believe, but actually the complete and total failure of our education system.

Unfortunately, we have a system of learning that pumps into children the belief that academia is the only way forward, that manual labour is secondary to "intellectual" pursuits and that university is your only real option in life. We offer little guidance to our young people in regards to apprenticeships and the world of work and we send millions every year out of schools and in to a world of employment they simply are not prepared for. That JCP is full of under twenty fives, bumbling around, largely looking clueless is exactly symptomatic of this problem.

And this isn't just the unbacked opinion of one moaning lefty, consecutive governments have recognized a problem with youth unemployment and have attacked it with schemes of their own. Unfortunately FJF was rushed out by Labour as election season propaganda and Work Programme is watered down, "cost efficient" when it needs proper investment and largely smacks of helping the retail sector more than the workless but then, heyho, it's a Tory scheme and at least it shows a recognition of a problem (even if I dislike their execution.)

At the other end of the scale you have skilled tradesmen, and this is something else we witnessed, who lost their jobs during the recession and had been working stably for the same firm for decades. People who hadn't had to do a job search in some thirty years and for whom the job market is a completely alien beast from the one they were last in. It's alright saying that the help is out there but it's poorly advertised, poorly taught and plenty don't understand it.

Yet all the while we're keeping up this culture of finger-pointing. Moaning about benefit claimants, moaning about "lazy", workshy people, belittling those without a job and - essentially - attacking their self worth. It's just building up this stigma that it's almost unethical to claim benefit and what does that do for the self esteem of those who are out of work but don't have Mummsy and Daddsy to support them? Self confidence and belief are absolutely vital components to any job search, for anyone without employment, and we seem to routinely do our best to take it away from people.

So, yeah, that's why I resent attitudes like "dont just moan and mope around and make everyone else's life a misery!!" and why I'll continue to have these rants.

Oh, and for the record, I went through about nine months of unemployment prior to the job I have now and I worked hard to get noticed to get here. But I'd never have had the opportunity without the support of my family and the people around me and by no means is everyone else that fortunate. I got lucky.

[One Arm Babba]

Automation is to blame. It's not just a wage difference but a lack of jobs... Especially for unskilled/unqualified people. In years gone by there would always be a factory job. But now robots and machines cost less and are more efficient than said worker. Thus creating a two tier society where the rich get richer and the poor resort to civil unrest..

This will get worse and more riots will occur.

[davieG]

My problem is tone, attitude, his entire approach and the fact that it's straight out of Daily Mail Reader 101 (and the fact he's a boy still in the education system who, forgive my making assumptions here, hasn't had to go through a demanding job search simply makes it worse.)

Across the country there are thousands (probably millions) of people unaffected by the job shortages who are, from their position of comfort, preaching that the jobless are idle 'moaners' who just need to 'sort themselves out.' It doesn't matter whether he qualifies "oh, not all of them!" because "most" is bad enough.

People are all too eager to turn around and the point the finger at some mythical stereotype of "the out of work" and simply lay the blame at their feet without considering why so many people can't actually get a job. Let's say, for a moment, that AJ is on to something and that a lot of people think that the only way to get a job is to have a CV and go to the Job Centre - why is that simply enough to lambaste them? Why are we looking at this as a failing of the people themselves and not the system that made them this way?

What you have to consider here is the needs of the long-term unemployed and why most of these people are unemployed to begin with. I was heavily involved with the Future Jobs Fund project under the previous government and what most of us noticed who worked with the scheme was that we were working with large, large groups of (predominantly) young men who had no idea how to present a CV, how to manage an interview or - most worryingly - how to even conduct a job search. This wasn't a failing of them as individuals or the result of laziness, as many are happy to believe, but actually the complete and total failure of our education system.

Unfortunately, we have a system of learning that pumps into children the belief that academia is the only way forward, that manual labour is secondary to "intellectual" pursuits and that university is your only real option in life. We offer little guidance to our young people in regards to apprenticeships and the world of work and we send millions every year out of schools and in to a world of employment they simply are not prepared for. That JCP is full of under twenty fives, bumbling around, largely looking clueless is exactly symptomatic of this problem.

And this isn't just the unbacked opinion of one moaning lefty, consecutive governments have recognized a problem with youth unemployment and have attacked it with schemes of their own. Unfortunately FJF was rushed out by Labour as election season propaganda and Work Programme is watered down, "cost efficient" when it needs proper investment and largely smacks of helping the retail sector more than the workless but then, heyho, it's a Tory scheme and at least it shows a recognition of a problem (even if I dislike their execution.)

At the other end of the scale you have skilled tradesmen, and this is something else we witnessed, who lost their jobs during the recession and had been working stably for the same firm for decades. People who hadn't had to do a job search in some thirty years and for whom the job market is a completely alien beast from the one they were last in. It's alright saying that the help is out there but it's poorly advertised, poorly taught and plenty don't understand it.

Yet all the while we're keeping up this culture of finger-pointing. Moaning about benefit claimants, moaning about "lazy", workshy people, belittling those without a job and - essentially - attacking their self worth. It's just building up this stigma that it's almost unethical to claim benefit and what does that do for the self esteem of those who are out of work but don't have Mummsy and Daddsy to support them? Self confidence and belief are absolutely vital components to any job search, for anyone without employment, and we seem to routinely do our best to take it away from people.

So, yeah, that's why I resent attitudes like "dont just moan and mope around and make everyone else's life a misery!!" and why I'll continue to have these rants.

Oh, and for the record, I went through about nine months of unemployment prior to the job I have now and I worked hard to get noticed to get here. But I'd never have had the opportunity without the support of my family and the people around me and by no means is everyone else that fortunate. I got lucky.

Can I just add a footnote to this, when I was employed in my last two jobs I was responsible for re-introducing apprenticeships where there hadn't been any for 10 years or more.

Whenever we advertised we got a large and varied selection of applicants but the worst in terms of providing CVs were the ones that had come through Connexxions who's remit was to help develop and get young people into work. The CVs they 'helped' to produce were the worst I've ever seen.

Like Nightguard I to was made redundant at 51 after 36 years but unlike him I had some decent qualifications and experience however it took me 2 years, 100s of job applications to which I received 3 acknowledgements and no interviews to get another job and then it was only part time and poorly paid with the County Council, yes not everyone is on high wages, this was in a period of relatively low unemployment,.

This lasted 3/4 years and I've since been unemployed and frankly given up trying because it is beyond demoralising when you spend hours producing an application knowing that it will end up in a shredder, I've probably completed the equivalent time and effort of getting a degree filling in these damn applications especially when many companies do not even accept a CV so each application has to be uniquely produced..

But I'm fortunate in that I was able to contribute to a pension whilst working and although it's less than I was getting in my part time I've been managing to live on it since this does however mean I'm not eligible for any benefits of any description.

Not everyone is born with the intelligence or cognitive skills to try for the highest jobs but that doesn't mean they're not hard working and they are just as entitled to the profits that companies make as those at the top. Many organisation are quite happy to preach the team ethic when it comes to making the business successful but seem to forget this when it comes to rewarding the success.

[Webbo]

It is coming out of your pocket to an extent through surplus value..

If it's a private enterprise then I'm not forced to patronize that company, anyway as I said, I don't care. I don't have a problem with people earning a good wage.

Oh and the argument that most of the top 1% have got there through hard work doesn't work for me. The majority will have inherited it or come from very privelaged backgrounds making it a lot easier to get there than any old person.

You're only guessing there. Some will have done and some won't. I don't know how you can know it's the majority. Even if what you're saying is true it doesn't mean that they are not the best person for the job.

[AjcW]

My problem is tone, attitude, his entire approach and the fact that it's straight out of Daily Mail Reader 101 (and the fact he's a boy still in the education system who, forgive my making assumptions here, hasn't had to go through a demanding job search simply makes it worse.)

Across the country there are thousands (probably millions) of people unaffected by the job shortages who are, from their position of comfort, preaching that the jobless are idle 'moaners' who just need to 'sort themselves out.' It doesn't matter whether he qualifies "oh, not all of them!" because "most" is bad enough.

People are all too eager to turn around and the point the finger at some mythical stereotype of "the out of work" and simply lay the blame at their feet without considering why so many people can't actually get a job. Let's say, for a moment, that AJ is on to something and that a lot of people think that the only way to get a job is to have a CV and go to the Job Centre - why is that simply enough to lambaste them? Why are we looking at this as a failing of the people themselves and not the system that made them this way?

What you have to consider here is the needs of the long-term unemployed and why most of these people are unemployed to begin with. I was heavily involved with the Future Jobs Fund project under the previous government and what most of us noticed who worked with the scheme was that we were working with large, large groups of (predominantly) young men who had no idea how to present a CV, how to manage an interview or - most worryingly - how to even conduct a job search. This wasn't a failing of them as individuals or the result of laziness, as many are happy to believe, but actually the complete and total failure of our education system.

Unfortunately, we have a system of learning that pumps into children the belief that academia is the only way forward, that manual labour is secondary to "intellectual" pursuits and that university is your only real option in life. We offer little guidance to our young people in regards to apprenticeships and the world of work and we send millions every year out of schools and in to a world of employment they simply are not prepared for. That JCP is full of under twenty fives, bumbling around, largely looking clueless is exactly symptomatic of this problem.

And this isn't just the unbacked opinion of one moaning lefty, consecutive governments have recognized a problem with youth unemployment and have attacked it with schemes of their own. Unfortunately FJF was rushed out by Labour as election season propaganda and Work Programme is watered down, "cost efficient" when it needs proper investment and largely smacks of helping the retail sector more than the workless but then, heyho, it's a Tory scheme and at least it shows a recognition of a problem (even if I dislike their execution.)

At the other end of the scale you have skilled tradesmen, and this is something else we witnessed, who lost their jobs during the recession and had been working stably for the same firm for decades. People who hadn't had to do a job search in some thirty years and for whom the job market is a completely alien beast from the one they were last in. It's alright saying that the help is out there but it's poorly advertised, poorly taught and plenty don't understand it.

Yet all the while we're keeping up this culture of finger-pointing. Moaning about benefit claimants, moaning about "lazy", workshy people, belittling those without a job and - essentially - attacking their self worth. It's just building up this stigma that it's almost unethical to claim benefit and what does that do for the self esteem of those who are out of work but don't have Mummsy and Daddsy to support them? Self confidence and belief are absolutely vital components to any job search, for anyone without employment, and we seem to routinely do our best to take it away from people.

So, yeah, that's why I resent attitudes like "dont just moan and mope around and make everyone else's life a misery!!" and why I'll continue to have these rants.

Oh, and for the record, I went through about nine months of unemployment prior to the job I have now and I worked hard to get noticed to get here. But I'd never have had the opportunity without the support of my family and the people around me and by no means is everyone else that fortunate. I got lucky.

To be fair if you had put that accross at first instead of being dismissive it would of been fine! We are all guilty of using the wrong "tone" occasionally.

And for the record im not a boy and I have just gone through the process of over 100 intern applications, aptitude tests, verbal and numerical reasoning, telephone interviews and assessment days all so I can be someones bitch boy for a year .

And next week I start a placement at the biggest advertising agency outside of London.... All this to get a foot in the door, because I am desperate to preempt not being in the position so many are currently.

[Finnegan]

And next week I start a placement at the biggest advertising agency outside of London..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

[AjcW]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

Oh no! I'm not going to get a globalisation corporation commercialism blah blah bull shit rant next am I?

[Finnegan]

Oh no! I'm not going to get a globalisation corporation commercialism blah blah bull shit rant next am I?

Bill puts it far better than I ever could, I won't embarrass myself trying to compete.

(Plus, I couldn't give a flying fuck what you do with your life matey.)