Income Distribution

The real incomes of about two-thirds of households in 25 advanced economies were flat or fell between 2005 and 2014. Without action, this phenomenon could have corrosive economic and social consequences.

Most people growing up in advanced economies since World War II have been able to assume they will be better off than their parents. For much of the time, that assumption has proved correct: except for a brief hiatus in the 1970s, buoyant global economic and employment growth over the past 70 years saw all households experience rising incomes, both before and after taxes and transfers. As recently as between 1993 and 2005, all but 2 percent of households in 25 advanced economies saw real incomes rise.

Yet this overwhelmingly positive income trend has ended. A new McKinsey Global Institute report, Poorer than their parents? Flat or falling incomes in advanced economies, finds that between 2005 and 2014, real incomes in those same advanced economies were flat or fell for 65 to 70 percent of households, or more than 540 million people (exhibit). And while government transfers and lower tax rates mitigated some of the impact, up to a quarter of all households still saw disposable income stall or fall in that decade.

The next globalization—deeper integration with the world economy through trade, flows of information technology, finance, and migration—will offer renewed and enhanced opportunities to increase productivity and raise incomes. However, along with rising average incomes may come dislocations and environmental pressures. This Global Economic Prospects analyzes three possible consequences— growing inequality, pressures in labor markets, and threats to the global commons. If these forces are left unchecked, they could slow or even derail globalization and thus adversely affect growth and development in many developing countries.The report is premised on the idea that these threats to continued global growth and poverty reduction from environmental damage, social unrest, or new increases in protectionist sentiment are potentially serious, and it is worth exploring ways that these disruptive forces might be addressed now if we wish to see sustainable global growth in the future.