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Examining Recent Changes in Income Distribution in Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Peter Saunders
Peter Saunders*
Affiliation:
Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales
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Abstract

This paper analyses recently released ABS data on the distribution of income and examines how inequality has changed since 1994–95 and since the election of the Howard Government in 1995–96. While real disposable incomes increased across the distribution, income inequality has also increased since 1994–95, particularly between 1996–97 and 1999–2000. Over the entire period from 1994–95 to 2000–01, mean income in the top quintile increased by $111 a week, more than eight times the increase of $13 a week in the lowest quintile. Since the Howard government came to office, the estimates indicate that almost half (47.3 per cent) of the total increase in disposable income was received by those in the top quintile — implying that half of the income generated by economic growth has been of no benefit to the bottom four-fifths (in income terms) of the population. Comparison with earlier research also shows that income inequality has, in some respects, increased more rapidly since the mid-1990s than during the 1980s.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , June 2004 , pp. 51 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2004

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Footnotes

*

The author acknowledges the comments on earlier drafts provided by Bruce Bradbury, Leon Pietsch and Peter Siminski. The usual caveats apply.

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