TORONTO — The earnings gap between the rich and the poor is widening in Canada, with incomes among recent immigrants showing especially dramatic declines in recent years, according to sweeping new census data.
Earnings among the richest fifth of Canadians grew 16.4 per cent between 1980 and 2005 while the poorest fifth of the population saw earnings tumble 20.6 per cent over the 25-year time period, Statistics Canada said in its 2006 census release on income and earnings. Earnings among people in the middle didn't budge.
Earnings “rose for those at the top...stagnated for those in the middle and declined for those at the bottom,” the government agency said.
Highlights from the 2006 census release on income and earning
• The earnings of the average Canadian has stagnated over the last 25 years.
• In 2005, a person with a full-time job earned a median pre-tax salary of $41,348 — only about a buck a week more than what the average worker took home in 1980, when adjusted for inflation.
• While middle class workers experienced no real growth in earnings, those at the top end got a lot richer (16.4 per cent increase between 1980-2005) and those at the bottom got much poorer (20.6 per cent decline).
• The median family income in Canada was $66,343, ranging from a high of $90,865 in the Northwest Territories to $51,791 in Newfoundland and Labrador.
• All provinces and territories experienced some growth in median family income between 2000 and 2005 — with Nunavut (19.0 per cent), the Northwest Territories (10.4) and Alberta (10.0) leading the way. Ontario (1.4) and British Columbia (1.8) were below the national rate of 3.7 per cent.
• Almost 3.5 million Canadians, or 11.4 per cent of the population, live below what Statistics Canada calls the low-income cut off — a term others often refer to as the poverty line.
Read the full story at The Globe and Mail
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hi well i think that canadians need more advertisment abroad canada that is very important for Canada these days and need more investment outside Canada why not there are many places which they are good to invest at like Australia and newzealand and the uk time is going too fast and the world are changing so we must to be more effective at these time Australian look at Canadian as they are their big brothers ok the canadian dollar is raising now and that make the investments outside Canada more tough but Australian dollar also raising so it is good to invest at Australia and places else .
another thing we must keep on improving our media and improve that we have our own perfect standerds to make people invest in our country it is fine don't forget our strong nighbour go there superb reputation to make poeple invest at there country without thinking it is now the time not after the time is too short we have out own facilities and our own oil and gas out own big farms our own energy .