The TUC tell us that bonuses have doubled to £28 billion pound in the last 7 years: £16 billion of these bonuses are in the financial sector. The Office of National Statistics helpfully tell us only about one in five of the workforce work in this sector.The TUC says £16 billion amounts to £250 for every man woman and child in the country.
I just thought it worth posting that information as there's been an amount of New Labour euphoria about an OECD report saying the gap between rich and poor has narrowed. This seems to be down to a combination of rising employment (about to disappear as a factor), tax credits and small rises in the minimum wage. But the OECD also say,
"We are talking about a blip downwards and over the last 30 years there has been a very rapid increase in inequality...There is less social mobility in the UK than in Australia, Canada and Denmark. In this respect it is similar to the United States and Italy....What your parents earned when you were a child has much more effect on your own earnings than in more mobile countries."
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