According to the data agency, incomes of the top one per cent of all tax filers in Canada rose by 9.4 per cent to $579,100 in 2021.
The 10 per cent pay bump for the top one per cent contrasts with incomes moving in the opposite direction for many other Canadians.
“Filers in the bottom half of the distribution saw their average total income decline $1,400 from 2020 to $21,100 in 2021,” Statistics Canada said in a release on Friday. The agency said most of that decline was due to the lowering or ending of pandemic-era government programs like CERB and CEWS.
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While the one per cent got an almost 10 per cent pay bump, the tiny group of people above them fared better still. “Filers in the top 0.1 per cent saw their average total income increase by 17.4 per cent to $2,086,100, while those in the top 0.01 per cent saw their average total income increase 25.7 per cent to $7,731,400.”
Asset prices were inflated in 2021, expert says
Those figures do not include capital gains, which are increases in the value of things like real estate, stocks and other businesses
Stephen Gordon, a professor of economics at Université Laval, said the increase is even more stark if capital gains are included, because just about every type of asset gained in value in 2021.
Capital gains are mostly concentrated in a comparatively small number of hands: StatsCan says only about 12 per cent of tax filers had any sort of capital gain to report in 2021, with the average coming in at $37,600. Five per cent of recipients received $131,100 or more.
“2021 was a year where the economy was overheating and interest rates were still at rock bottom, which boosted things like stock prices and housing prices,” Gordon said in an interview on Friday. “Anybody that had assets saw their value go up quite a lot, and that’s mainly at the top end of income distribution.”
If capital gains are included, average income for the top one per cent was $811,800 in 2021, up 20.5 per cent from 2020. In 2021, the average income for the top 0.1 per cent was $3,230,000, up 27.6 per cent, and for the top 0.01 per cent was $12,542,100, up 30 per cent.
If capital gains are stripped out, the income distribution looks a lot less stark.
“The median income for all tax filers is still above what they were in 2019,” Gordon said.
Income gap getting wider
Taken together, the figures released Friday show that the share of income taken in by the richest one per cent of Canadians got even more top-heavy during the years in question.
The top one per cent received 10.4 per cent of all the aggregated income earned by tax filers that year, “up from 9.4 per cent in 2020 and the highest level posted since 2015,” StatsCan reported.
If there was a sector of society where income distribution got more equitable during the year, it would be the balance between men and women within the one per cent.
“Overall, women composed 26.1 per cent of the top one per cent of income tax filers, up from 25.4 per cent in 2020,” the data agency reported. “The share of women in the top one per cent has been increasing steadily since this series started in 1982, when the share was 11.4 per cent.”
‘They make most of the money’
Armine Yalnizyan, an economist and Atkinson Fellow on the Future Of Workers, says the numbers clearly paint a picture of the “rich getting richer,” but she says she’s especially concerned with how it is happening.
While the one per cent and above have made wage gains, “two-thirds of their income is coming from capital gains, dividends and other non-work things,” she said in an interview.
“That’s problematic given the people working in the bottom half [who] are much more reliant on working for their wages and salaries.”
Yalnizyan notes that while the one per cent earn more, they also pay a disproportionate amount of taxes, with the latest data showing 22.5 per cent of all income tax in Canada is paid by one per cent of filers.
“That’s a very heavy load, but then they make most of the money, so that’s why,” she said.
While incomes are inching higher for most people across the board, the fact that they’re going up faster for those at the top than those at the bottom is a big problem for policymakers, Yalnizyan says.
“The pace of growth … depends on what you are starting with to begin with,” she said — which means the gap will only keep widening.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers placed All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey on injured reserve because of his lingering calf and Achilles tendon injuries.
The move made Saturday means McCaffrey will miss at least four more games after already sitting out the season opener. He is eligible to return for a Thursday night game in Seattle on Oct. 10.
McCaffrey got hurt early in training camp and missed four weeks of practice before returning to the field on a limited basis last week. He was a late scratch for the opener on Monday night against the Jets and now is sidelined again after experiencing pain following practice on Thursday.
McCaffrey led the NFL last season with 2,023 yards from scrimmage and was tied for the league lead with 21 touchdowns, winning AP Offensive Player of the Year.
The Niners made up for McCaffrey’s absence thanks to a strong performance from backup Jordan Mason, who had 28 carries for 147 yards and a touchdown in San Francisco’s 32-19 victory over the New York Jets. Mason is set to start again Sunday at Minnesota.
After missing 23 games because of injuries in his final two full seasons with Carolina, McCaffrey had been healthy the past two seasons.
He missed only one game combined in 2022-23 — a meaningless Week 18 game last season for San Francisco when he had a sore calf. His 798 combined touches from scrimmage in the regular season and playoffs were the third most for any player in a two-year span in the past 10 years.
Now San Francisco will likely rely heavily on Mason, a former undrafted free agent out of Georgia Tech who had 83 carries his first two seasons. He had at least 10 touches just twice before the season opener, when his 28 carries were the most by a 49ers player in a regular-season game since Frank Gore had 31 against Seattle on Oct. 30, 2011.
The Niners also have fourth-round rookie Isaac Guerendo and Patrick Taylor Jr. on the active roster. Guerendo played three offensive snaps with no touches in the opener. Taylor had 65 carries for Green Bay from 2021-23.
San Francisco also elevated safety Tracy Walker III from the practice squad for Sunday’s game against Minnesota.
BRUSSELS – Canada walked away with some hardware at the Diamond League track and field competition Saturday.
Alysha Newman finished third in women’s pole vault, while Marco Arop did the same in the men’s 800-metre race.
Newman won a bronze medal in her event at the recent Paris Olympics. Arop grabbed silver at the same distance in France last month.
Australia’s Nina Kennedy, who captured gold at the Summer Games, again finished atop the podium. Sandi Morris of the United States was second.
Newman set a national record when she secured Canada’s first-ever pole vault medal with a bronze at the Olympics with a height of 4.85 metres. The 30-year-old from London, Ont., cleared 4.80 metres in her second attempt Saturday, but was unable conquer 4.88 metres on three attempts.
Arop, a 25-year-old from Edmonton, finished the men’s 800 metres with a time of one minute 43.25 seconds. Olympic gold medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya was first with a time of 1:42.70.
Djamel Sedjati, edged out by Arop for silver in Paris last month, was second 1:42.87
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.
MILAN (AP) — Bologna’s preparations for its Champions League debut are not going well though it managed to spoil Como’s first Serie A home match in 21 years on Saturday.
Bologna came from two goals down to salvage a 2-2 draw to gather three points from its opening four matches.
Bologna hosts Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday. Its only other appearance in Europe’s top competition was in 1964 in the preliminary round of the old European Cup.
AC Milan is also winless as it prepares for a Tuesday Champions League match against Liverpool. The Rossoneri hosted promoted Venezia later. Juventus drew at Empoli 0-0.
Como made a great start in the fifth minute when Patrick Cutrone attempted to roll the ball across the six-yard box but it took a huge deflection off Bologna defender Nicolò Casale for an own goal.
Bologna thought it was gifted a way back into the match on the stroke of halftime when referee Marco Piccinini signalled for a penalty following an Alberto Moreno handball, but he revoked his decision and instead gave a free kick because the handball was just outside the area.
Bologna improved after the break but found itself further behind when Cutrone raced onto a through ball and cut inside past a defender and fired into the far bottom corner.
Tommaso Pobega hit the post for Bologna, which finally pulled one back in the 76th through substitute Santiago Castro.
Another substitute helped the visitors snatch a point when Samuel Iling-Junior curled a fine strike into the top left corner in stoppage time.
Unbeaten sides
Juventus, and more surprisingly Empoli, are among six unbeaten sides.
Empoli held Monza and Bologna to draws either side of a shock 2-1 win at Roma. Juventus’ perfect start to the season was ruined by Roma in a goalless draw before the international break.
On Saturday, there were few clearcut chances in Empoli although home goalkeeper Devis Vásquez made spectacular saves to fingertip out a Federico Gatti header and deny Dusan Vlahovic in a one on one with the Juventus forward.
Empoli had a good opportunity in the 73rd minute following an Alberto Grassi one-two with Pietro Pellegri but the finish was straight at Mattia Perin.
The host could have won it right at the death but Gatti flew in with a great sliding block to keep out Emanuel Gyasi’s close-range effort.
Juventus hosts PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Tuesday.
