TUAC BACKGROUND PAPER: THE ROLE OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AS PART OF A COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY TO REDUCE INCOME INEQUALITY
20/05/2015
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- TUAC Background Paper on Inequality_2015pdf
The OECD is releasing its new report on inequlity, " In It Together - Why Less Inequality Benefits All", on May 21. It has been at the forefront of presenting evidence on income inequality since the publication in 2008 of “ Growing Unequal?”, and “ Divided We Stand” in 2011. Most OECD countries have experienced rising income inequality and in-work poverty for several decades and now, as shown by the 2014 OECD Employment Outlook, falling or stagnant real wages.
Rising income inequality is no longer just an ethical or normative issue – it has economic costs and restrains a broad-based and sustainable recovery. There are also serious long-term consequences. High inequality leads to low inter-generational mobility. The capture of the policy agenda by top income earners through their excessive domination of political funding in some countries is leading to a serious distortion of public policy and builds inequity into economic growth models. As the OECD has stated the rise of inequality “can affect economic growth, weaken social cohesion and sap trust in markets and institutions”.