Friday, September 13, 2013

The Canadian Divide

Canada’s 1-per-cent club requires a total income of $191,100, or nearly seven times the median income. There are 272,600 members.

The median individual income in Canada was $29,878 in 2010, the survey showed – which means half the population had an income above that level and half below. The median family income in Canada is $76,000.

Data from the previous census paints a picture of 25 years of stagnant income growth for the middle class. It showed median earnings of full-time workers were $41,401 in 2005 – a change of just $53 when adjusted for inflation over a quarter of a century.

Three million Canadians, or 8.8 per cent of the population, had low incomes in 2011. That’s unchanged from the previous year. More than half a million, or 571,000 children aged 17 and under, lived in low income in 2011 and nearly a quarter of children who lived in single-mother families lived in poverty.

The top 10 per cent of earners receive 28.1 per cent of income and pay 42.1 per cent of Canada’s income tax.

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