Mind the gap?

02 March 2010Should we care about the earnings gap between city professionals and the men and women who clean their offices, or is it enough to know that both groups are steadily getting richer, asks Andrew Leigh

Australian economic policymakers have a zippy self-confidence these days. Having dodged the 1997 Asian financial crisis, avoided the 2001 US tech-wreck, and emerged largely unscathed from the Global Financial Crisis, our economic growth seems remarkably robust. Adjusting for buying power, Australian incomes per person are 70 percent higher than they were in 1980.

Averages are handy, but can sometimes conceal more than they reveal (every time James Packer enters a bar, the average drinker becomes a millionaire)...

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Photo: Andrew Jeffrey

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