By the Numbers: Globalization, the 1% and the rest of us

Ottawa – December 11, 2013 – Statistics Canada has recently released the results of an analysis of top earners that demonstrates how globalization is instrumental in making the 1 percent even wealthier.

• Annual incomes for top 1 percent have more than doubled over the past 3 decades.

• During the same period, the median taxpayer’s income remained almost unchanged.

• Incomes among the 1 percent have climbed 80 percent since 1986.

• Incomes for the top 0.1 percent increased by 138 per cent.

• Incomes for the top 0.01 percent increased by 169 per cent.

• Incomes for the bottom 90 percent of income earners (or the rest of us) has only increased by 19 percent.

• Median pay for CEOs at Canada’s 100 largest companies almost tripled to $4.1 million from $1.4 million in 2001 (exclusive of stock options, pension accruals and other monetary gains).

• Canada’s top 10 percent took 57 percent of all reported investment income in 2010.

The 1 Percent :

• 254,730 tax filers in the 1 percent category, in 2010; 79 percent of them male and 21 percent female; 83 percent married or in common law relationship, with a median age of 51.

• The average income of the 1 percent was $429,600 in 2010.

• 88 percent of the 1 percent work in: management (39 percent), health care (14 percent), business and finance (14 percent), education, law community and government service (11 percent) and natural and applied sciences (10 percent).

• The 1 percent paid 21 percent of all federal and provincial taxes in Canada in 2010.

• The 1 percent live in:  Ontario (43 percent), Alberta (20 percent), Quebec (17 percent) and in British Columbia (12 percent).

• The 1 percent are likely going to stay at the top; in 2010, 53 percent of those at the top income ladder had also been there five years earlier.

Source: Statistics Canada, Globe and Mail