Group's Study Finds Income Gap Widening

In the U.S., the richest 10% earn an average of $93,000..Looks like Joe The Plumber 's taxes are not going up after all. Wonder how many toilets have to be plumbed and reamed to make $200,000?

clipped from online.wsj.com The gap between rich and poor has widened over the past 20 years in nearly all the countries studied, even as trade and technological advances have spurred rapid growth. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said its 20-year study found inequality had increased in 27 of its 30 members as top earners' incomes soared while others' stagnated. The U.S. has the highest inequality and poverty rates in the OECD after Mexico and Turkey, and the gap has increased rapidly since 2000, the report said. France saw inequalities fall as poorer workers are better paid. In the U.S., the richest 10% earn an average of $93,000 -- the highest level in the OECD. The poorest 10% earn an average of $5,800 -- about 20% lower than the OECD average. OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said greater income inequality "polarizes societies" and "carves up the world between rich and poor." Economic inequality is growing in the world's richest countrie