A modest redistribution of wealth from the top to the bottom would give a pay rise of £40 a month to the lowest paid 25 per cent of the income scale, according to a new report from the High Pay Centre.
A modest redistribution of wealth from the top to the bottom would give a pay rise of £40 a month to the lowest paid 25 per cent of the income scale, according to a new report from the High Pay Centre.
The share of national income going to the top 1 per cent of the income distribution has more than doubled since 1979 to 14.5 per cent from 6 per cent.
At the same time wages for most of the population have stagnated, barely keeping up with inflation.
And government plans to give a tax break worth up to £2.7 billion to the top 1 per cent when the 50p rate is abolished in April means take home pay for the rich will become even more disproportionate, the report says.
But if those earning more than £150,000 took a 10 per cent pay cut and this went directly to the bottom 25 per cent, they would get a 55 per hour pay rise to £7.35, taking them closer to the national living wage of £7.45.
As well as being fair, this would inject spending power into the economy for those at the bottom, the report says.
Currently taxpayers subsidise low-paying employers to the tune of £4 billion with in-work cash transfers a year, it adds.
Inequality at a glance
. In 1979 the top 0.1 per cent took home 1.3 per cent of the national income; by 2007 this had grown to 6.5 per cent.
. The Gini co-efficient, an internationally recognised measure of inequality, was 0.240 in the UK in 1978, since then it has been increasing and in 2010/2011 it was 0.338.
. Someone on an annual salary of £500,000 takes home more in a month than the average person takes home in a year.
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.
61 Responses to “Modest redistribution of wealth would give £40 a month boost to lowest paid”
Newsbot9
That’s right, how dare there be competition! Gotta have your monopoly corporatist “market”, rather than a free market. The patent system is broken – even here, but especially in America.
And that’s because utilitarian objects can’t be patented. There’s a reason that was necessary, thanks to your very real bullies. Moreover, those items are rapidly vanishing from poor households here.
People still make their cash in those fields *despite* your claims they can’t though.
Mick
No, the big shots would be just regular guys if Newsbot had his way. Big shots whose heads would be figuratively shot off if they dared rise above.
That’s little Newsbot – keeping the poor poor in his mutualist universe, whilst blaming all else for his crimes. Good job the mutalists’ world are only in their heads.
Mick
The cap fits Newsbot, as Newsbot knows.
And if mutualists can’t trust one another then it’s a good job the voters are oblivious to them.
Mick
There was competition. If you patent an idea or invention, people can still rival it. But only with different technology. Sometimes competition improves the design, sometimes it doesn’t.
But the system works as Newsbot knows. Which is why he’s happy to whine and sob, yet still uses a world of technology created and marketed within the capitalist society he wants to see crumble.
Mick
‘Moreover, those items are rapidly vanishing from poor households here.’
Plenty of stolen goods about thanks to criminal louts the Left always pamper. Though luckily, second hand goods stores sell more of everything at bargain bin prices.
A branch of Cash generator in Reading even have laptops at £20 each. If anyone wants to be amused, there’s no bar now.