Last update - 00:00 17/12/2006
Report: Rich, poor gap deepens despite major economic growth
By Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent
The fiscal growth enjoyed by Israel over the course of the last three years not only did nothing to diminish the gap between the poor and the wealthy, it in fact only deepened the inequality, so says a comprehensive fiscal report published Sunday by the Adva Center, a policy analysis institute focused on equality and social justice issues.
Dr. Shlomo Swirski and Ms. Etty Konor-Attias, the authors of the report, say the foremost cause of the financial gap is the fact that the country's fiscal growth was enjoyed primarily by the high-tech industry and the financial services (banks, insurance companies), rather than uniformly.
"We continue to insist that growth will be capable of coping with the numerous problems of Israeli society only if it is guided by a public policy that is careful to distribute investments throughout society and throughout the country, so that all citizens have the prerequisites to take part in economic activity, and so that the fruits of growth will be more equitably divided," the report states
In 2005, the report reveals, management in the country's top 25 companies earned an average of NIS 639,000 a month, and in the top 100 companies - an average of NIS 421,000. In contrast, minimum wage in Israel is NIS 3,333 a month. After taxes, the report maintains, the highest paid individuals in Israel earn 50 times more than those earning minimum wage.
While those in the top income bracket enjoyed a salary increase in 2005, most of the public's salaries have actually declined. The number of Israelis earning the average monthly income or less has increased in 2005 to 73 percent of the work force. The number of Israelis earning minimum wage or less has increased from 27 percent ten years ago, to 34.1 percent in 2005.
Compared to 2004, the top two deciles enjoyed a 4.4 percent increase in their share of the national income. However, the remaining eight deciles suffered an average of half a percent decrease in their respective shares of the national income.
Gaps between different demographic groups were also noted in the report: Urban individuals of European descent earned 39 percent more than the average monthly wage in 2005, whereas individuals of Middle-Eastern descent earned the average and Arab individuals earned 28 percent below the average.
In education, the report reveals that 55 percent of 17-year-olds failed to earn high-school diplomas in 2005, as opposed to 52.2 percent in 2004. Most of the teens who do not complete their studies attended schools in Arab localities, poor Jewish urban neighborhoods and development towns.
Among students from the localities with the highest socio-economic ranking, the percentage admitted to universities was 28.2, compared with 10.5 percent of students from localities with the lowest socio-economic ranking.