Statistics Canada's latest report on income inequality backs up what foodbanks have been telling us for years, the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing, especially in Windsor.
The report looked at median family after-tax income across Canada and found after a decade of growth, Canadians earned 2.8 per cent less in 2021 compared to the year before.
The median after-tax income fell from 60,960 in 2020 to $59,300.
Those who made less than the median income saw their incomes fall more dramatically, especially single-parent families with children under 6. It dropped 6.8 per cent.
Families that earned over the median saw their incomes rise by 1.6 per cent.
Statistics Canada noted the federal government ended COVID-19 benefits in 2021, although the drop was partially mitigated by a rebound in employment that year.
Windsor experienced the greatest drop of the census metropolitan areas measured in the report, down 5.7 per cent overall. Meanwhile, the percentage of families with lower income rates grew to 19.3 per cent, the highest in the country.
Toronto saw its low-income rate increase to 18.6 per cent, while Winnipeg's grew to 17.2 per cent.
The report also looked at income inequality using the Gini coefficient.
The Gini coefficient rates inequality from 0, where everyone earns the same income in the population, to 1, where one person makes all the income.
In Windsor, the income inequality rate rose from 0.344 in 2020 to 0.356 a year later, an increase of 3.48 per cent.
London's income inequality rate also increased from 0.328 to 0.345, up 5.1 per cent.
Toronto had the highest income inequality at 0.407, while Saguenay, Quebec, had the lowest at 0.284.
