July 11, 2002

Mean Median Income

Statistics Canada has released data for calendar year 2000 on median incomes. The median is the point at which half of the population has less and half has more, by definition it is the midpoint. It should not be confused with the average. If 9 out of 10 people had incomes of $15,000 per year and the last one had an income of $165,000 (like a deputy minister), then the median income of those 10 people would be $15,000 but the average would be $30,000.

The numbers released by Statistics Canada show a median income in the year 2000 of $21,600. Statistics Canada previously reported that average income for economic families of two or more people was $63,818 in 1999. Average family income by female headed single parent families was $27,571. In 1999 average income for unattached individuals was $27,058. The big gap between any of the average income figures and the median income figure of $21,600 indicates the large number of people who get by on very little. While half the population has an income at or below the median, over half of the population has an income below the average.

Big shots frequently demonstrate an appalling lack of understanding or sympathy for how most Canadians live. It can be difficult for a provincial cabinet minister making $107,500 to understand what it is like for a retired couple living on $30,000 per year to deal with hundreds of dollars in increased MSP premiums and the loss of their Pharmacare benefits.

Recall one of Premier Campbell's early statements when he hired the past president of the BC Liberal party to be one of his deputy ministers - he then handed deputies another big pay increase. Campbell said more had to be paid in order to attract the best and the brightest. That attitude might explain why enormous tax cuts were given to high income earners while the meager tax breaks received by most British Columbians were clawed back through a 50% increase in MSP premiums, a sales tax increase, higher user fees for many services, hundreds of service cuts and devastating cuts to welfare.

The Campbell government is acquiring a reputation of being mean, of not caring and of not thinking through the consequences of its actions. Perhaps it is the failure of the big shots to understand what life is like for those they govern that contributes to the Campbell government's reputation. In some ways it would be even worse to imagine that they do understand what they are doing!