The household income gap widened last year, with the average annual disposable incomes of the richest families reaching 6.05 times those of the poorest, results of the latest survey released on Thursday showed.
The trend marked a reversal from 2007, when the income gap between the richest and poorest 20 percent of local families narrowed slightly to a factor of 5.98 from 6.01 recorded in 2006, an official from the Cabinet-level Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said.
Moreover, the official said, if social welfare subsidies and tax benefits were excluded, the income gap between the two groups would have hit an all-time high of a factor of 7.73 for last year.
The DGBAS has conducted an annual survey of family incomes and expenditures since 1964 to keep tabs on wealth distribution.
The survey divides families into five brackets in terms of annual disposable income, with the top 20 percent defined as the richest and the bottom 20 percent as the poorest. The largest income gap between these two brackets was 6.39-fold, recorded in 2001.
But if social welfare subsidies and tax benefits were excluded, the wealth gap in 2001 was 7.67 fold, lower than that recorded last year.
The latest survey found that the average annual disposable income in the richest group of families reached NT$1.84 million (US$55,700) last year, compared with NT$304,000 for those in the poorest bracket.
With government welfare subsidies and tax breaks excluded, the annual disposable family income of the richest group amounted to NT$1.9 million, compared with the poorest group’s NT$245,000.
The DGBAS official attributed the widening wealth gap in part to structural changes in the job market as a result of economic globalization.
As to whether the global financial crisis had any impact on local wealth distribution, the official said a further survey and study would be needed to find out.
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