Wages, as a share of GDP, have fallen by about 25 per cent in Japan in the past 30 years, by about 13 per cent in the European Union and by 7 per cent in the United States.
-----------------------
June 20, 2007
Globalising increases inequality, OECD says
Gabriel Rozenberg
The world’s richest nations must pay more heed to the fears of those whom globalisation has left behind, as rapid technological progress deepens income inequality, a report says today.
In contrast to its past reports extolling the virtues of globalisation, the latest study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) highlights the darker side of ever-deeper trade ties.
The Paris think-tank said that trade unequivocally raised living standards, but whether jobs in rich countries were more or less at risk was impossible to answer simply.
Trade, technological change and the rise of China had swung the balance of power against labour and towards capital, according to the 2007 Employment Outlook.
Wages, as a share of GDP, have fallen by about 25 per cent in Japan in the past 30 years, by about 13 per cent in the European Union and by 7 per cent in the United States.
The report said: “Foreign competition disproportionately affects low-skill workers by raising the probability of involuntary job loss and by making earnings of workers that stay in their jobs more sensitive to changing conditions in the external labour market.”
Inequality widened in all but two of twenty OECD nations between 1995 and 2005, the report showed, although it widened only slightly in Britain. |
