OECD says gap between rich and poor in UK among widest in world

by Dave Keating | October 20, 2008 at 11:28 pm

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The gap betweeen rich and poor in the UK continues is one of the widest in the world, according to new figures in a report released today. The gap has grown by 25 percent in the last 20 years. However this rate of growth is less than other industrialized Western countries.

The divide in earnings widened by 20 per cent between 1985 and 2005, leaving the gap between the top and the bottom greater in the UK than in three-quarters of other developed nations.

The situation has been improving since 2000, researchers found, with the UK experiencing the largest drop in inequality among all developed nations.

While both the richest and poorest have been getting richer, the bottom has experienced a growth in earnings three times as large as the top, the report, by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), found