Huge income gap grows

It says the huge differences in pay were counter-productive and damaging for most economies. The current global financial crisis will widen the gap even further.

The UN said top executives were earning excessively more than average employees, with the chief executive officers of the 15 largest companies in the United States, for example, earning 520 times more than the average worker in 2007.

The huge income inequalities could be associated with higher crime rates, lower life-expectancy, and in the case of poor countries malnutrition and an increased likelihood of children being taken out of school to work.

Source: Panos London