Public Employee Press

The World of Work
Half the world lives on $2 a day

Elite Wall Street traders earned as much as $33,000 an hour in 2005, according to the New York State comptroller.

That year, the average U.S. household took in $46,326. So in 1 hour and 23 minutes, the top brokers made as much as the average family makes in a year.

But in the rest of the world, 3 billion people — one half of the global population — scratch by on $2 a day, according to the United Nations.

The richest 2 percent of the world’s population owns more than half of the globe’s wealth. And the richest three people — Microsoft’s Bill Gates, investor Warren Buffet and Mexican telecom owner Carlos Slim Helu — are worth more than the poorest 48 nations combined.