A Canadian with an annual income of $89,000 qualifies for membership in the exclusive club that includes the top 5 per cent of the nation's earners.
The , included in the September issue of Perspectives on Labour and Income, looked at tax data from 2004.
It found the following:
- Three-quarters of the top 5 per cent of earners were men;
- Fifty-four per cent of high income earners were between 45 and 64 even though they only represented 33 per cent of all income recipients;
- Almost half -- 46 per cent -- of the top 5 per cent of tax filers lived in Ontario.
The study used data from tax returns and survey data from 2004 to identify trends among Canada's highest earners.
Although an annual income of $89,000 would place a Canadian individual in the top 5 per cent, membership requirements increased dramatically within the top echelons of that group.
In order to make it into the top 1 per cent of earners, or the top 237,000 people, a Canadian would have to earn $181,000.
But to make it into the top 0.01 per cent of tax filers, an earner would require an income of $2.8 million annually.
The study found that between 1992 and 2004, income for people in the top 20 per cent of tax filers rose substantially. And gains increased dramatically further up the income distribution scale.
By contrast, earners outside the top 5 per cent saw little growth in their constant-dollar income.
Not surprisingly, the study suggests that the rich are getting richer.
In 1992, the top 5 per cent of tax filers brought in about 21 per cent of the nation's total income. By 2004, the same group accounted for 25 per cent of total income.
When gender was factored in, the numbers showed some interesting trends. Women accounted for a quarter of high income earners in 2004, compared to one in seven in 1982. But their share of the top 0.01 per cent declined from 12 per cent to 11 per cent.
The study also showed a spike in the number of high-income earners who were working in their pre-retirement years.
Though they represented about a third of all earners, they held a majority within the top 5 per cent of earners. And in the elite top 0.01 per cent of tax filers, one in three were between 45 and 64 years of age, StatsCan reports.
About 78 per cent of all high-income earners were married, as were 83 per cent of the top 0.01 per cent.
The study broke down the following details:
- Though Ontario had the most earners at 46 per cent, Quebec was a distant second at 18 per cent, Alberta was third at 15 per cent and B.C. followed at 13 per cent.
- Families in the higher income bracket were likely to live in urban areas, with 31 per cent of families with incomes over $250,000 living in Toronto, 11 per cent in Montreal and Vancouver and Calgary both at 8 per cent.
- Between 1992 and 2004 each demographic group saw income go up, with some groups seeing a large spike, such as people living in Alberta and those between 45 and 64 -- both with gains of about 60 per cent.
- People under 45, over 65 and those in smaller provinces saw little gain between 1992 and 2004.
