Pity the rich? Canada’s wealthiest see their take shrink: StatsCan

Pity the rich. Statistics Canada says the wealthiest Canadians lost ground to the other 99 per cent in recent years.

New data released by the agency says Canada’s top one-per-cent of income earners saw their share of the country’s overall earnings drop to a six-year low in 2012.

The federal agency found the super-rich held 10.3 per cent of total earnings in 2012 — a drop from a peak of 12.1 per cent achieved in 2006.

MORE: Canada’s middle class richest in the world, report says

To qualify as a member of the rarefied club, the agency says your individual income in 2012 income had to surpass $215,700, or about $18,000 a month.

The plight of the wealthy in Canada appears to fly in the face of well-documented evidence from the United States and elsewhere among rich, industrialized countries where the top one-per-cent saw their share of income rise over the same period.

In the United States, the richest one percent saw their combined wealth climb from 18 to 19.3 per cent of the national total, according to StatsCan.

Women’s take rises

The data also shows the percentage of Canadian women among the top one-per-cent earners in 2012 was nearly double what it was in 1982.

The agency says women made up more than one-in-five of the ranks of Canada’s super-wealthy in 2012.