Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 7—Income and welfare 287
C5.5 CHANGES IN INCOME DISTRIBUTION AMONG FAMILIES—1968–69 to 1997–98
1968–69 1997–98 Change, 1968–69 to 1997–98
Income deciles
Income
Share
%
Upper
Bound(a)
$(’97–98)
Income
Share
%
Upper
Bound(a)
$(’97–98)
Income Share
percentage
points
Upper
Bound(a)
$(’97–98)
First 2.2 13 040 1.8 15 030 –1.8 +1 990
Second 4.6 20 000 3.3 19 100 –1.3 –900
Third 6.2 24 200 4.4 26 220 –1.8 +2 020
Fourth 6.9 28 260 6.0 34 180 –0.9 +5 920
Fifth 8.5 32 460 7.6 43 020 –0.9 +10 560
Sixth 9.3 36 820 9.3 51 790 0.0 +14 970
Seventh 10.6 42 030 11.2 62 200 +0.6 +20 170
Eighth 12.2 49 130 13.3 74 000 +1.1 +24 870
Ninth 15.0 62 030 15.3 94 200 +0.3 +32 170
Tenth 24.7 . . 26.8 . . +2.1 . .
P10/P50(b) . . 0.402 . . 0.349 –0.053 . .
P90/P50(b) . . 1.911 . . 2.19 +0.279 . .
P90/P10(b) . . 4.756 . . 6.266 +1.510 . .
Gini coefficient 0.33 0.39 18.2%
Robin Hood
index 22.5 26.6 18.2%
(a) In 1997–98 dollars. Incomes have been deflated using the private final consumption expenditure deflator.
(b) The percentile ratios (P10/P50, etc.) show the ratio of the upper bound income of the first decile (P10) to the fifth decile,
or median (P50), and so on.
Source: CBCS 1973; ABS 1999.
Table C5.6 compares how individuals have fared
since 1968–89 by investigating changes in the
distributions of total incomes (from all sources)
of full-time male and female workers. (It should
be noted that the figures for 1968–69 refer to
full-time, full-year workers, while those for
1997–98 refer to workers who were working
full-time at the time of the survey.) Income
inequality increased among both male and female
full-time workers, with the relative position of
lower-income workers declining and that of
high-income workers improving. The extent of
these changes for males and females was very
similar. By 1997–98, low-income female full-time
workers were equally well off (relative to the
female median) than were low-income males
(relative to the male median). In contrast, the
position of higher-income male workers relative
to the male median was above that of
higher-income female workers, and throughout
the period there was greater inequality in the
male distribution than in the female distribution.
At the same time, there has been a narrowing of
male-female income differentials at all points in
the two distributions since the late 1960s.
Whereas in 1968–69 the median income of
full-time male workers was 67% above that of
the corresponding median female income, by
1997–98 that differential had fallen to 20%.
A more detailed exploration of changes in
income distribution is restricted to the
period since 1981–82, when the ABS income
surveys were regularised and data stored
electronically. There have, however, also
been some changes to the survey
methodology since then, most notably when
the change to a continuous survey was
introduced in 1995. This change has affected
the comparability of some of the data from
the more recent (post-1995) surveys with
those collected in earlier years. The following
analysis minimises the impact of these
changes in survey methodology and
represents the best estimates that can be
produced from the currently available data.