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Income inequality has been rising in many rich countries in recent decades. In the 1980s, the most prosperous 10 percent of the population in OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries earned seven times more than the poorest 10 percent. They now earn nearly ten times more. Inequality increase after the crisis in particular in Spain, Greece, and Portugal. When you include property and other forms of wealth, the situation is even more regretful: the richest 10 percent controlled 50 percent of all total household wealth and the richest 1 percent held 18 percent, compared to only 3 percent for the poorest 40 percent.
Households in Luxembourg (€437 thousand) and Belgium (€218 thousand) have the highest median net wealth, those in Latvia (€14 thousand) and Estonia (€44 thousand) have the lowest.
Major imbalances remain across nations in terms of overall employment, with unemployment rates reaching 24 percent in Greece versus 4 percent in Iceland.
The in-work poverty rate in Finland is only 3.5 percent, in Romania, 18.8 percent of the employed are working poor.
An average gender pay gap of 16.3 percent. That means that the average gross hourly wages of female employees are 16.3 percent below those of men. There are huge differences among the 28 EU countries: While the gender pay gap in Italy and Luxembourg is only at 5.5 percent, it is at 26.9 percent in Estonia.
