This chapter outlines the continuing inequality of incomes in Canada from 1981 to 1991. Government policies and tax and transfer payments aim to reduce this imbalance, but are struggling just to maintain the current level of inequality. As the following analysis discovers, the rich are still getting richer and the poor, poorer.
Total income is defined as all sources of income including government transfers, before taxes.
This distribution has shown considerable resistance to change over the years. Within the categories of all households and unattached individuals, the top quintile received about nine times as much income in 1991 as did the bottom quintile. Tabulations by the authors based on Statistics Canada's Survey of Consumer Finances microdata tapes. A look at the bottom two quintiles indicates that unattached individuals were the only lower-income group that made consistent gains in equality over the period. While the bottom quintile gained only 0.4 additional points of income, the second quintile was up 1.1 points, and the top quintile lost 1.0 point.