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Per recent research, the average employee in the UK would have to work half a century of salary to attain the wealth level of the richest 10% in the country.

Growing Economic Disparity Across Decades

This research examined net worth information covering the recent health crisis years and determined that in the mid-2000s, it would have required 38 years of typical employment income to reach the wealthiest decile of the economic ladder.

A research lead part of the analysis commented: "Financial divides in Britain are currently so significant that a typical full-time employee accumulating their complete salary throughout their career would still not be able to attain the highest level of the economic scale."

Measuring the Economic Gap

The analysis found that the difference between the wealth of the average person and a person belonging to the richest segment was £1 million in 2006-08, but had widened to £1.3 million in inflation-adjusted terms by recent times.

The researcher continued: "These disparities are particularly worrying as wealth mobility in Britain is low – individuals who begin life affluent tend to continue being rich, and conversely applies."

Proportional Economic Disparity

Despite the wealth gap growing in absolute terms, the percentage of complete net worth in the UK held by the richest households – termed "comparative financial divide" – has been "largely unchanged since the eighties," according to the research.

Throughout these years, total wealth in the UK rose substantially from triple the annual GDP, to approximately 7.5x.

Factors of Financial Divide

So-called "automatic" increases, via growing real estate costs and adjustments to pension valuations, were the main drivers of the growing financial disparity from 2010 onward, as stated in the report.

These increases typically went to older, property-owning households, the analysis reveals – worsening the intergenerational wealth divide.

Intergenerational Wealth Disparities

The median economic difference between thirty-somethings and sixty-somethings more than doubled in real terms, from £135k in the mid-2000s, to 310 thousand pounds.

Geographic Variations

There were also significant area-based disparities, with the typical amount of assets in the pandemic period standing at £290k in south-east England, where housing costs have tended to rise rapidly, compared with 110 thousand pounds in the NE of England.

COVID Era Effects

Throughout the COVID period, when countless laborers were protected by the public-funded employment protection, and Covid shutdowns curtailed consumption options, the statistics indicate numerous families were capable of accumulating, growing their net worth.

Higher-income households fared much better, however. "The typical family in the poorest fifth saw their available funds rise by merely £80 during the COVID years (2019-20 to 2021-22), broadly the same as the pre-crisis period. In contrast, the typical family in the highest income quintile saw their available funds rise by £4,200," the analysis concludes.