by From this Nature editorial . . . income inequality within countries is rising, as measured by the Gini index, a measure of income distribution across a population. Globally, in the 15 years to 2019, economic output in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) roughly doubled, but the share of economic output earned by the workers producing the goods and services behind the increase fell from 54.1% in 2004 to 52.6% in 2019. So what has gone wrong? Between 2019 and 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the steepest rise in global inequality since the Second World War. Some people couldn’t go to work or saw their jobs furloughed, whereas others — mostly in higher-level jobs — were able to move their work online, says Ida Kubiszewski, an ecological economist at University College London. Then
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. . . income inequality within countries is rising, as measured by the Gini index, a measure of income distribution across a population. Globally, in the 15 years to 2019, economic output in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) roughly doubled, but the share of economic output earned by the workers producing the goods and services behind the increase fell from 54.1% in 2004 to 52.6% in 2019. So what has gone wrong? Between 2019 and 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the steepest rise in global inequality since the Second World War. Some people couldn’t go to work or saw their jobs furloughed, whereas others — mostly in higher-level jobs — were able to move their work online, says Ida Kubiszewski, an ecological economist at University College London. Then inflation rose. The global average for 2021 was 4.7%, but the rate was much higher in many low- and middle[1]income countries (LMICs). And that was before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Although many high[1]er-income countries increased social protections for the most vulnerable, lower-income countries found it a struggle to do so. The aid group Oxfam and the non-profit organization Development Finance International have created an index that measures what governments are doing to tackle inequality. The 2022 edition assessed 161 governments between 2020 and 2022. It found that, during this period, 70% of governments cut their share of spending on education and two-thirds failed to increase the minimum wage in line with GDP (see go.nature.com/3ywfbif). [emphasis added]