Report highlights generational income gap

Twenty-somethings are the first generation to be financially worse off than their parents.

New figures from the Conference Board show that over the last thirty years the gap in incomes between older and younger workers has widened; in the '80s it was 47 per cent, now it’s 64 per cent.

The report shows that in many workplaces older workers are being paid more than younger colleagues for doing the same job and while there is often a premium paid for experience it is not always a factor in the wage differential.

For the housing market it highlights a big problem of course; younger first-timers struggling to afford a home and older down-sizers affected by stagnation further down the ladder. While an overheated market may be a current factor, the income gap is a longer term concern for the market.

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