Kewalin Sirirattanaprasert (Fah)

Section 11-05

Canada Income Inequality

Income inequality is the unequal distribution of household or individual

income. Income inequality is often presented as the percentage of income to a

percentage of population. In Canada, there is not much inequality because Canada is

one of the richest Country in the world which rank number 8th out of all the country

around the world because there economic is very good since they have many

resources in country such as, zinc, uranium, potassium, cadmium, sulfur and nickel.

They also have a big oil and software industry that make economic grow faster.

However, in pass 20 years income inequality in Canada has increased. We can see

from Gini index which scale from 0 to 1. On Gini index shows that Canada inequality

increases to 0.33 from 0.28 from last 20 years. It is kind of big change. Canada

income inequality is higher than other close country even though Canada economic is

better than other country. Canada get grade C from D and rank in 12th out of 17th

country. High inequality affects economic growth in country because it shows that the

country doesnt have capability and skill to develop country. Also it leads to increase

social tension. Canada high class is mostly engineer, doctor, senior manager. They are

mostly men and marriage. Canada middle class get individual income around 29,878

Dollar and 76,000 Dollar for household. Three million Canadian or 8.8% has low

income and Three-fifth of them live in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Most of

them are Single people, visible minorities, recent immigrants and single parents

account. As you can see that Canada has many different class of people in different
city that make Canada income inequality increasing in today world. On the other

hand, Canada minister, Justin Trudeau, He is a new minister from liberal party that

trying to improve Canada in better way. He has many policies that can make Canada

develop such as universal health care, same sex marriage, bilingualism,

multiculturalism, peace keeping, student loan etc. It might help Canada to change. For

the solution, There are many different ways to decrease Canada income inequality.

First way is to increase tax. Government should gather more taxes from rich people

and donate the taxes to poor people because rich people is too wealthy and poor

people wont have a chance to solve poverty problem so this way is one of the best

way. Second solution is to encourage increased unionization because this will protect

the right of workers to get their full benefit such as, wage, worker right etc. Last one

is to rise the minimum wage. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives estimates

that for two working parents with two children, the living wage in Toronto should be

$16.60 an hour and $14.07 in Winnipeg, a far cry of where it stands now. There are

many solutions that can solve the problem in Canada so this problem might be

decrease in this few years.

 References

Bagnall, J. (2015, October 02). Income inequality equation in Canada: Who's

gaining, who's lagging and why. Retrieved March 09, 2016, from

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/insight/income-inequality-equation-in-canada-

whos-gaining-whos-lagging-and-why

Grant, T., & Curry, B. (2013, September 12). The wealth of the nation: A

snapshot of what Canadians earn. Retrieved March 09, 2016, from

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/who-are-the-1-per-cent-a-snapshot-of-

what-canadians-earn/article14269972/?page=all

Income Inequality. (n.d.). Retrieved March 09, 2016, from

http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/society/income-inequality.aspx

Rochon, L. (2014, December 23). Income inequality damaging Canadian

economy. Retrieved March 09, 2016, from

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/income-inequality-damaging-canadian-

economy-1.2882793