Oxfam released a report on Monday from its Reward Work, Not Wealth survey that outlined how the wealthy are accumulating wealth while the poor are struggling to survive.
The report noted that the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth in the past year while 82% of the wealth generated last year went to the richest one percent of the global population. This shows how deep the inequality gap has dipped.
Here are seven facts from the report that explain how serious the situation is:
- Billionaire wealth has risen by an annual average of 13 percent since 2010 – six times faster than the wages of ordinary workers, which have risen by a yearly average of just 2 percent.
- Every two days between March 2016 and March 2017, there is an increase in the number of billionaires.
- In the US, it takes slightly over one working day for a CEO to earn what an ordinary worker makes in a year.
- It takes just four days for a CEO from one of the top five global fashion brands to earn what a Bangladeshi garment worker will earn in her lifetime.
- In Nigeria, the legal minimum wage would need to be tripled to ensure decent living standards.
- At current rates of change, it will take 217 years to close the gap in pay and employment opportunities between women and men.
- A global tax of 1.5 percent on billionaires’ wealth could pay for every child to go to school.
This article by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com
Ismail Akwei 