THE DISPARITY between household incomes has been highlighted in a new report which shows more than one-quarter of families were living on incomes of less than €20,000 in 2006, while 5 per cent of households enjoyed incomes of more than €134,000.
Some 11,200 households were on incomes of €250,000 or more.
The Hierarchy of Earnings, Attributes and Privilege report was commissioned by equality think tank Tasc and Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) to establish the extent of income inequality. It found 58 per cent of families were living on less than €40,000 per year in 2006. The researchers included social welfare and other Government benefits when calculating income.
Households with incomes of less than €10,000 included unemployed and disabled people, students, clerical and secretarial workers, and people doing home duties.
The higher-income categories were dominated by those in managerial or professional roles. The only households with annual incomes of €600,000 were people working in managerial or professional roles.
The study by NUI Galway academics Prof Terrence McDonough and Jason Loughrey found social welfare payments played a key role in reducing poverty levels from 21.9 per cent in 2001 to 16.5 per cent in 2007. The study also highlighted the gender pay gap, with women’s income some two-thirds of men’s. When adjusted for differences in hours worked, women’s hourly earnings were 86 per cent of men’s.
The role of education in improving income was highlighted by the researchers. The average gross income of those with no formal education, or primary education only, was €13,489, while those with a university degree had an average income of €45,707.
Tasc and Ictu have produced a poster illustrating the numbers of households at different income levels, broken down by occupational category and household type, together with an explanatory booklet. They plan to distribute it to schools around the country.
Tasc director Paula Clancy said this was a unique and very important piece of work “because we are a society built on inequality”.
She said the research made “crystal clear the gap that’s between those at the top of the heap and those at the bottom”.
Many people believed inequality lessened during the boom years, but Ms Clancy said inequality worsened from 1987 to 2005. “The gap between those at the bottom and those at the top in terms of income earning really did widen and widen quite dramatically.”
She highlighted the 26 per cent of families living on less than €20,000: “Any moves to cut social welfare really should be avoided.”
Ictu general secretary David Begg said the findings were a graphic illustration of our clearly divided society. He said the research would be used in Ictu’s campaign against imposing the burden of the recession on low- and middle-income earners.
“If Government had any intention of forging a new and more equal Ireland out of this mess, it would study this report closely and act decisively to ensure nothing like it could ever be compiled again. We won’t hold our breath.”
Prof McDonough said much of the data was drawn from surveys carried out in 2006 but that if there had been a change in people’s circumstances since then, it was for the worse.
“While incomes across the board are reduced, the structure of overall income inequality still applies,” he said. There was “a massive amount of inequality out there”.
