By Andy Takagi
In the third quarter of 2023, the wealthiest 20 per cent of Canadians accounted for the vast majority of total wealth across the country.
Canada’s income inequality continues to widen, highlighting the struggle of the lowest income Canadians to make ends meet amidst a prolonged cost-of-living crisis.
Income inequality increased in the third quarter of 2023, according to Statistics Canada's latest report. The wealthiest Canadians had their income buoyed by high wages and investment income, while the persistently high cost-of-living weighed on the lowest income households, draining them of their net savings.
In the third quarter of 2023, the wealthiest 20 per cent of Canadians with an average net worth of $3.3 million accounted for 67.4 per cent of the total net wealth across the country. In comparison, the bottom 40 per cent of Canadians had an average net worth of $67,738 and made up just 2.8 per cent of Canada’s total net wealth. The poorest 20 per cent of Canadians had a 0.2 per cent negative share of net wealth, meaning their total assets were outweighed by debt and liabilities.
The new report comes amidst sky-high inflation that has left the most vulnerable Canadians in the lurch. While rent, food and other costs of living have been going up, wages for many professions have been stagnant — except for executives and top-earning Canadians. A new January report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative found that C-suite bosses saw their pay skyrocket in 2022. Meanwhile, indicators of the cost-of-living, like the living wage, have been increasing as the minimum wage has barely kept up.
“Most wealth is held by relatively few households in Canada,” StatCan wrote in its report. It’s a trend that has continued since July, when StatCan last updated this data. Economists at the time blamed the impact of the Bank of Canada's rate-hikes that squeezed low-income and indebted households.
Compared to a year ago, the gap between Canada’s richest 20 per cent and the poorest 40 per cent grew by 0.2 per cent, according to StatCan’s analysis, mainly driven by growth in financial assets held by the wealthy, while the cost of transportation, health care and housing all weighed on the lowest income households.
Source Toronto Star
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