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Per fresh analysis, the median employee in the UK would require over five decades of income to achieve the wealth level of the most affluent 10% nationwide.

Growing Wealth Gap Over Time

The study examined net worth statistics including the 2020-22 timeframe and found that back in the mid-2000s, it would have taken 38 years' worth of typical employment income to reach the wealthiest decile of the wealth distribution.

A senior economist part of the report observed: "Wealth gaps in Britain are now so large that a average worker saving all their earnings across their entire working life would continue to be incapable to attain the highest level of the economic scale."

Measuring the Economic Gap

The analysis found that the difference between the assets of the median citizen and an individual in the top 10% was £1 million in 2006-08, but had widened to 1.3 million pounds in real terms by 2020-22.

The researcher added: "These disparities are especially alarming as wealth mobility in Britain is restricted – individuals who begin life wealthy tend to continue being rich, and conversely applies."

Relative Wealth Inequality

Even with the wealth gap expanding in specific figures, the portion of overall assets in the UK owned by the wealthiest families – termed "relative wealth inequality" – has been "broadly stable since the 1980s era," according to the study.

During this period, overall assets in the UK increased dramatically from thrice the gross domestic product, to nearly seven and a half times.

Factors of Economic Disparity

Referred to as "passive" increases, via rising house prices and variations in pension valuations, were the primary factors of the growing financial disparity since 2010, as stated in the analysis.

These increases typically went to senior citizens with real estate, the study demonstrates – worsening the intergenerational wealth divide.

Generational Wealth Disparities

The typical financial disparity between thirty-somethings and sixty-somethings increased over twofold in inflation-adjusted terms, from £135k in 2006-08, to £310k.

Geographic Variations

There were also stark area-based disparities, with the average level of net worth in the pandemic period amounting to £290k in the southeastern region, where real estate values have tended to rise rapidly, versus £110k in the NE of England.

Health Crisis Years Effects

During the pandemic, when numerous employees were supported by the taxpayer-backed furlough scheme, and Covid shutdowns curtailed consumption options, the data shows countless homes were capable of accumulating, enhancing their financial standing.

More affluent homes fared much better, however. "The average household in the bottom income bracket saw their liquid savings grow by only eighty pounds during the COVID years (from 2019 to 2022), approximately equivalent to the 24 months before COVID. In contrast, the typical family in the highest income quintile saw their cash reserves rise by £4,200," the study reveals.