The Socialist 18 May 2011

Strike back at pensions robbery!

Strike back at pensions robbery!

Fight all the cuts - come to the NSSN conference

Battle for the NHS!

Derriford hospital announces huge cuts

Crisis deepens in the eurozone

The Hardest Hit march and rally

Teachers' strike stops job cuts

Iraq war: Labour's lie machine

Pay gap grows ever wider

News in brief

Britain now facing crisis on all fronts

Northern Ireland: The 'no change' elections

UCU at the crossroads on pensions

CWU conference: Support joint union action on 30 June

BA dispute: Mass meeting votes to put latest agreement to membership

Workplace news in brief

Con-Dems: Supporting Youth Enslavement

Yorkshire Youth Fight for Jobs regional conference

Tory cuts hit children and young people

Teachers strike and parents picket at Shorefields

Campaigners put pressure on Lambeth council

The difference a union makes

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Pay gap grows ever wider

'Under capitalism the rich get richer and the poor get poorer'. Merely Marxist propaganda? Not so. A new report by the high pay commission shows that the wage gap between UK's highest earners and the rest of workers will soon be as wide as in Victorian times.

According to the commission the top 0.1% of earners will see their pay rise from 5% to 14% of national income by 2030. The last time this concentration of wealth was seen was in the early 1900s.

Last year according to the report the average salary of corporate fat cats was over £3,747,000. This sum is over 145 times greater than the national median full time wage of £25,800.

The report says the trend is likely to see a further widening of this gap to 214 times by 2020.

Undoubtedly, right wing trade union leaders will seize upon such figures as strengthening the call for a return of a Labour government.

However, recent figures published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies show that income inequality between rich earners and the majority of workers accelerated under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

In this issue

Socialist Party workplace news

Strike back at pensions robbery!