Reply #5: U.S. is among developed economies with highest income inequality

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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-1206-oecd-income-20111206,0,7728506.story

Reporting from New York—
The United States continues to outpace other developed economies globally with one of the biggest divides between rich and poor, according to a new report.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported that the average income of the richest 10% in developed nations is nine times that of the poorest 10%, up from five times as large in the 1980s. The difference between the highest and lowest paid is greater in the United States than in most other wealthy countries, while inequality has risen faster in others such as Sweden and Finland, the report says.

"This phenomenon is not confined to the U.S. — it's much more general to advanced countries in the world," said Edward Wolff, a professor studying income inequality at New York University.

The study from Paris-based OECD, whose members are 34 developed countries, joins a growing number of recent studies showing that income inequality has grown since the 1970s after falling in the decades after World War II. This is the organization's first report on the subject since 2008.