The Herald’s inequality calculator
The Herald has a calculator where you enter in your income and it tells you what income decile you are in, and how much your decile has gained over time compared to others.
If you are in the top 10% it shames you with your 29% income growth and tries to make the other 90% resent you.
And then just for balance, it provides a link to a left wing inequality campaign site, for people to join.
Very fair and balanced.
A reader also points out another flaw:
I have checked the fine print and it talks about needing to know your household size to compare like with like but doesn’t refer to what income to include.
As an example one woman i know initially did it using just after tax on her pay slip… Didn’t include WFF, tax credits, accomm supplement, cash jobs etc. Once added changed her position by two spaces
Additionally, we are top bracket – we have grown our businesses in last few years to point where we have gone from employing three people to eleven and a financial position where we had huge debt in the business (that we have now paid off) and now getting dividends plus additional $ with me working more.
I inputted what we had as income five years ago (I wasn’t working, kids were little, plus still had significant debt in business that we were paying down plus mortgage). The Herald indicator put us at the third tier. We weren’t poor by any stretch of imagination but it was bloody tight – and high stress trying to make a business work. We didn’t claim WFF as don’t believe in it. Damn principles!
One of the things I love about NZ is ‘ where there is a will there is a way’ – I’d hate to think people will believe we have always been top tier because we just are… Bloody hard work got us there. And we give back where and when we can. We don’t pull the ladder up behind us. Please recognise we need people like us to employ people and to invest in new ventures.
Most of those in the top 10% moved there up the scale. We should applaud that, not envy them and want to pull them down.