Income inequality hit record high at start of 2025, Statistics Canada says

The Canadian Press

· Posted: Jul 16, 2025 3:57 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

The spread betwixt the country's highest- and lowest-income households reached a grounds precocious successful the archetypal 4th of 2025, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.

The bureau said the quality successful the stock of disposable income betwixt households successful the apical 40 per cent of the income organisation and the bottommost 40 per cent grew to 49 percent points successful the archetypal 3 months of the year.

"It's not a surprise," said Katherine Scott, a elder researcher focused connected sex equality and nationalist argumentation astatine the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Scott said the existent economical uncertainty is "contributing to a batch of economical distress," successful peculiar for young radical seeking employment.

Statistics Canada said the measurement has accrued each twelvemonth pursuing the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the archetypal 4th of 2025, it said the summation came arsenic the highest-income households gained from investments, portion the lowest-income households saw wages decline.

Scott said galore individuals astatine the higher extremity of the income standard didn't spot their incomes diminution during the pandemic, with galore staying successful their jobs.

"But much importantly, they were successful a presumption to instrumentality vantage of the immense run-up of the concern markets that happened astatine that clip and person continued to summation ever since," Scott said.

Disposable income spread widens

Those successful the bottommost 20 per cent of the income organisation saw the weakest maturation successful disposable income successful the archetypal quarter at 3.2 per cent compared with a twelvemonth ago, arsenic their mean wages edged down 0.7 per cent.

The lowest-income households besides saw the largest driblet successful nett concern income arsenic their net fell 35.3 per cent, portion nett transfers received, including accrued authorities enactment measures, roseate 31.2 per cent.

The mean disposable income for those successful the apical 20 per cent of the income organisation accrued astatine the fastest gait of immoderate income radical arsenic they benefited from a 7.7 per cent summation compared with a twelvemonth earlier.

The highest-income households saw a 4.7 per cent summation successful mean wages and a 7.4 per cent summation successful concern income.

Statistics Canada said the wealthiness spread besides accrued arsenic the apical 20 per cent of the wealthiness organisation accounted for 64.7 per cent of Canadians' full nett worthy successful the archetypal quarter, averaging $3.3 cardinal per household.

The bottommost 40 per cent of the wealthiness organisation accounted for 3.3 per cent of nett worth, averaging $85,700 per household.

Scott highlighted that pursuing the 2008-09 recession, determination was a "real discussion" regarding rising income inequality, which doesn't look to beryllium taking spot currently.

"This benignant of information, the largest spread ever, it's a wake-up call. We can't prolong it, we person to wage attraction to the operation of our system and the organisation of that," she said.

"We person to turn the pie, but we person to speech astir the organisation of the pie. It matters that radical are capable to unrecorded a decent prime of beingness with dignity. I deliberation that's a truly important nationalist argumentation goal, which seems to beryllium mislaid successful the existent conversation."