The top 1 per cent of wage earners in Australia now takes home as much in a fortnight as the lowest 5 per cent take home in a year.
That is another finding from the new Inequality in Australia 2018 report released by the Australian Council of Social Service, or ACOSS, and University of New South Wales researchers.
ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie says the research shows a growing problem in the country.
"It does show significant changes in income and wealth inequality in Australia. It particularly shows that we've got a big, and growing, gap in the savings that people are able to get behind them."
The top 1 per cent of earners are making an average of $11,682 per week.
The lowest 5 per cent are earning $436.
Dr Goldie says the gap makes it especially difficult for those at the lower end to plan for unexpected crises.
"If you have very little behind you, you really are at risk if you lose your job. If some difficult life event happens, then it can plunge you into real desperation. So we are very concerned that we've got this growing trend of a gap between people on higher incomes and lower incomes, when it comes to the wealth behind you. And particularly for younger people, the housing-affordability challenge in Australia is severe."
Income inequality increased strongly from 2000 to 2008, then levelled off after the Global Financial Crisis, when overall growth in wages and investment incomes faltered.
University of New South Wales social-policy professor Peter Saunders, part of the research team, says the aim of the report is to provoke discussion into the issue of inequality.
"Is inequality too high or too low at the moment? Now one of the aims of the report is to provide a comprehensive stocktake of what the data tells us so that people can go away and think about what the patterns are like and decide for themselves whether inequality is too high or too low."
Wealth inequality grew from 2003 to 2015, led by growth in superannuation assets and investment property, more concentrated towards richer households than owner-occupied housing.
The research reveals the richest 20 per cent hold 62 per cent of all household wealth and the lowest 50 per cent have just 18 per cent of the wealth.
Professor Saunders says that leads to a range of problems.
"There are concerns that, with that concentration right at the top, a small group of people are getting undue influence over how the economy is run and, also, influence over the decisions taken by the people who are running it on our behalf, i.e., the governments. And there is a feeling -- and this feeling has probably been expressed most strongly in the United States, where inequality is higher than in Australia, but it's being voiced here as well -- that these concentrations can lead to a situation where the economy is starting to be run to protect the benefits of that small group, rather than for the interests of the population as a whole."
At the very top of the wealth pyramid, 3,000 individuals are in a category Credit Suisse calls "ultra-high-wealth individuals."
Those people have wealth exceeding $65 million.
Australia has the fifth-highest number of people in the world with that amount of wealth.
