Per fresh analysis, the median employee in the UK would need 52 years' worth of salary to attain the net worth of the most affluent 10% in the country.
Expanding Wealth Gap Across Decades
The analysis analyzed financial assets statistics covering the 2020-22 timeframe and determined that during 2006-08, it would have needed 38 years of average worker salary to enter the top 10th of the wealth distribution.
A senior economist involved with the report observed: "Financial divides in Britain are currently so significant that a average worker accumulating their complete salary across their entire working life would still not be able to reach the top of the economic scale."
Assessing the Wealth Divide
The study found that the gap between the net worth of the average person and an individual in the top 10% was £1m in the pre-crisis period, but had increased to £1.3m in real terms by the pandemic years.
The economist further stated: "These gaps are doubly concerning as financial progression in Britain is limited – those who commence life affluent tend to continue being rich, and the opposite holds true."
Comparative Financial Divide
Although the economic divide growing in actual numbers, the share of total wealth in the UK owned by the richest households – termed "proportional economic disparity" – has been "largely unchanged since the 1980s era," as stated in the research.
Over this timeframe, total wealth in the UK rose substantially from triple the annual GDP, to nearly seven and a half times.
Factors of Economic Disparity
Referred to as "unearned" increases, by means of rising house prices and variations in superannuation evaluations, were the primary factors of the growing financial disparity from 2010 onward, per the analysis.
These gains generally flowed to older, property-owning households, the analysis reveals – intensifying the intergenerational wealth divide.
Age-Based Economic Gaps
The average wealth gap between people in their early 30s and sixty-somethings more than doubled in actual value, from £135k in the mid-2000s, to £310k.
Geographic Differences
Furthermore, the study revealed stark geographic differences, with the average level of assets in 2020-22 standing at £290k in the SE of England, where real estate values have typically increased quickly, compared with £110,000 in the NE of England.
Health Crisis Years Effects
Throughout the COVID period, when numerous employees were covered under the government-supported job retention program, and health crisis restrictions curtailed consumption options, the information reveals numerous families were able to save, growing their net worth.
More affluent homes fared much better, though. "The average household in the bottom income bracket saw their available funds grow by only eighty pounds throughout the health crisis (2019-20 to 2021-22), broadly the same as the pre-crisis period. Conversely, the average household in the top income bracket saw their available funds grow by 4,200 pounds," the report finds.
