BACKGROUND COLOUR

Is falling income inequality COVID’s silver lining?

Insights
.
ANU Poll
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16 Sep 2021
Health + Pandemic + Equality
Based on the work of
Nicholas BiddleBen EdwardsMatthew GrayKate Sollis

While the initial period of the pandemic led to job losses and falls in income, the payments introduced by the Federal Government helped ease the impact for the low paid. This actually led to an improvement in income inequality. Fewer people also were finding things difficult on their current income.

10 %

Between February and April 2020, income per person per week fell by around $77.00 or 10%.

34 %

Income per person in the lowest income level went up 34% due to the increases in government assistance.

23 %

Nearly a quarter of people were finding it difficult on their current income, which is a fall from 27% in February.

6.2

Because of the Government payments introduced to deal with COVID-19, income inequality improved substantially falling from 7.2 in February to 6.2 in April.

Change in Weekly Per Person After-Tax Household Income, February and April 2020
Which of the following describes your household's total income, after tax and compulsory deductions, from all sources?
Sources & Methodology
Variable description By decile
Deciles:
1. $0 to $24,554 ($0 to $472 weekly)
2. More than $24,554 to $38,896 (more than $472 to $748 weekly)
3. More than $38,896 to $52,884 (more than $748 to $1,017 weekly)
4. More than $52,884 to $69,524 (more than $1,017 to $1,337 weekly)
5. More than $69,524 to $88,452 (more than $1,337 to $1,701 weekly)
6. More than $88,452 to $109,304 (more than $1,701 to $2,102 weekly)
7. More than $109,304 to $134,784 (more than $2,102 to $2,592 weekly)
8. More than $134,784 to $168,688 (more than $2,592 to $3,244 weekly)
9. More than $168,688 to $222,300 (more than $3,244 to $4,275 weekly)
10. More than $222,300 (more than $4,275 weekly)
Variable time span February 2020 - April 2020
Published by ANU Poll
Publisher Link https://csrm.cass.anu.edu.au/research/publications/hardship-distress-and-resilience-initial-impacts-covid-19-australia-1
Data Source doi:10.26193/HLMZNW
© Copyright 2021, Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National University.
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Background

ANU Poll is a quarterly survey of Australian public opinion. The topic of each survey is an issue of national importance. ANUpoll differs from other opinion polls by placing public opinion in a broad policy context, and by benchmarking Australia against international opinion. lt is also able to follow trends in opinions over many decades.

ANUpoll is collected by the Social Research Centre's panel, Life in AustraliaTM. The Social Research Centre collected data online and through Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) in order to ensure representation from the offline Australian population.

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Researchers

Professor Nicholas Biddle is Associate Director of the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods and Director of the newly created Policy Experiments Lab (http://csrm.cass.anu.edu.au/pelab). He has a Bachelor of Economics (Hons.) from the University of Sydney and a Master of Education from Monash University. He also has a PhD in Public Policy from the ANU where he wrote his thesis on the benefits of and participation in education of Indigenous Australians. He previously held a Senior Research Officer and Assistant Director position in the Methodology Division of the Australian Bureau of Statistics and is currently a Fellow of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute.

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Associate Professor Ben Edwards is a Senior Fellow at the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods. An expert in longitudinal and life course studies and quantitative social scientist, Ben focuses on public policy research in the area of child and adolescent development, informal carers, intergenerational impacts of trauma (e.g. veterans, refugees) and natural disasters (e.g. drought, bushfires, cumulative disasters). He is a member of scientific advisory groups for the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth, Generation Victoria and a longitudinal cohort study in the Philippines. Ben has advised the OECD, United Nations and Australian Federal and State Government departments in designing longitudinal studies and evaluations, child welfare, non-cognitive skills, and crime prevention.

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Professor Matthew Gray is Director of the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods. Previous positions include Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Director of Research for the College of Arts and Social Sciences and Deputy Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies (2005–2010). He has published research on a wide range of social and economic policy issues including those related to Indigenous Australians. He has particular expertise in work and family issues, labour economics, social capital and social inclusion, measuring wellbeing, the economic consequences of divorce, child support, and social and economic policy development. He has undertaken extensive work on economic policy issues involving Indigenous Australians, including health status, labour market outcomes, poverty and the CDEP scheme.

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Kate Sollis is a Research Officer and PhD Candidate at the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods. Her background is in statistics and social policy, with a particular interest in the measurement of wellbeing. She has previously worked as a Research Officer at ARACY (The Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

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Citation

Biddle, N., Edwards, B., Gray, M. & Sollis, K., ANU Poll #33 Hardship, distress, and resilience: The initial impacts of COVID-19 in Australia [Computer file]. Canberra: Australian Data Archive, The Australian National University, 2020.

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