An injured man walks among demonstrators as they clash with riot police in front of the government house during a protest a day after Congress approved a relatively small 2017 wage hike for workers of the public sector, in Santiago, Chile where inequality is one of the highest among developed countries. Photo: Reuters

OECD: Chile, Mexico, US have highest inequality rates

Published: 2:55am, 25 Nov 2016

Chile, Mexico and the US are the developed countries with the highest rates of inequality, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a report.

The OECD uses the Gini coefficient, a measure of household income to measure wealth distribution. Its value is zero in a country where everybody has the same income and 1 in a country where one person has all the income.

Chile has a Gini coefficient of 0.47, just ahead of Mexico at 0.46. The US reading is 0.39.

Pope Francis' envoy, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor (C) consecrates the new St. Olav Cathedral, during a consecration Mass in Trondheim, Norway, a country with one of the lowest levels of inequality in the develope world. Photo: EPA

That compares to readings of 0.24 for Iceland, where inequality is the lowest, and 0.25 in Norway and Denmark, which rank second and third. Among Group of Seven countries, Germany and France have the lowest ratios, with readings of 0.29.

Across the developed world, the level of inequality remains near its highest since the 1980s, according to the Paris-based institution.

“Incomes at the bottom of the distribution are still well below pre-crisis levels while top and middle incomes have recovered much of the ground lost during the crisis,” the OECD said.

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