Kutscher, Gloria and Hanappi-Egger, Edeltraud (2017) The role of unions as working-class representation. In, Hanappi, Hardy, Katsikides, Savvas and Scholz-Wäckerle, Manuel (eds.) Theory and Method of Evolutionary Political Economy: A Cyprus symposium. 1 ed. London. Routledge, pp. 85-100. (doi:10.4324/9781315470214).
Abstract
Increasing structural inequality in distribution Inequality develops by segregation of social groups. Groups can appear in different constitutions and often have an official and institutionalized form. An important link between social segregation and inequality is capital (Bowles et al., 2009). According to Bowles (2012), the only way of emancipating disadvantaged people is to install regulatory mechanisms which redistribute capital. Thus to pave the way for equality, group consciousness and redistribution processes need to be set in motion. But, the trend in Europe shows an opposite dynamic. There has been an increase in a skewed distribution of income and wealth, which has led to added inequality (Atkinson et al., 2012; Piketty, 2014; Piketty & Zucman, 2013; Therborn, 2012). The distribution of disposable household income since the 1980s has continuously become more unequal in OECD countries. In 1980 the top 10% earned seven times as much as the bottom 10% while in 2014 the top 10% earned 10 times as much. This is because the disposable household income of the top 10% rose further than that of others, and the bottom-income households had higher income losses during and after the economic crisis of 2008. Clearly income inequality has increased (OECD, 2015). This can be seen in the Gini coefficient. The Gini-coefficient shows how national income (or wealth) is distributed. A Gini-coefficient of 1 shows a maximal unequal income distribution in a country whereas a Gini-coefficient of 0 depicts that national incomes are equally distributed within society. Most often values lie between 0.3 and 0.5 (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2010). In the mid-1980s the Gini coefficient of the OECD countries stood at 0.29. By 2013 it had risen to an average of 0.32. Germany, for example, had an increase from 0.25 to 0.30, Sweden from approximately 0.18 to 0.27 and the USA approximately from 0.34 to 0.41 (OECD, 2015).
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