Women account for a smaller and smaller fraction of those with the highest incomes according to a study by the LSE’s International Inequalities Unit, which found that while women have been increasing their representation in the top 10% of earners, progress has been much less at the very top 0.1%
The LSE research team used tax data from eight countries since the 1980s or earlier to look for the first time at the gender composition of those with top incomes from all sources, not just from earnings, including dividends and interest. More females are represented at the top of the scale, but are moving less rapidly into the very top positions.
Only 9% of the top 0.1% highest earners in the UK are women, the lowest of the six countries that can be compared. The league table is headed by Spain, where 16.6% of women are represented in the very top group.
The findings show that women are less than a third of those in the top 10% in all countries, and as few as 22% in Norway. Women are less than a quarter of the top 1% in all the countries, and less than 18% in Norway, Demark and the UK.
The report says that over time the speed of the fall in the presence of women moving from the top to the very top has become more marked – there appears to be a ‘glass ceiling’ at the very top, despite some improvements for the top 10.
Alessandra Casarico, associate professor of public economics at Bocconi University in Italy, said: ‘Women now make up more of the top income groups, but they still are a distinct minority and they become rarer the higher one climbs. Composition of income is important: In the old days, the rich were those with property; they have been replaced by CEOs and entrepreneurs, among whom women are not well represented.’
The LSE report, Top incomes and the gender divide, International Inequalities Institute Working paper No.5, is here.
