Unequal Scotland

The economy gap between rich and poor in Renfrewshire is widening, making it one of the most unbalanced in Scotland. The Paisley Daily Express has analysed wage figures from the Office for National Statistics to find out just how big the difference is between top and bottom earners across the country.

In Renfrewshire the poorest fifth of full-time workers take home less than £355 a week, while the richest pocket at least £787 a week, in 2015. This means the poorest 20 per cent earn less than half – only 45 per cent – of what the richest punters rake in. That puts Paisley’s local authority area at 20th place out of the total 32 Scottish council areas in terms of the pay gap.

And the gap between rich and poor has been stretching in Renfrewshire over the last five years, where the bottom fifth earners have seen their earnings drop by 2.3 per cent, compared with the top 20 per cent of bread winners in the same period.

Across Scotland, the poorest fifth of earners took home 46.2 per cent of what the top 20 per cent made in 2015.

While only Edinburgh, Moray, Perth and Kinross, Aberdeenshire and our neighbouring authority of East Renfrewshire, are worse when it comes to the widening chasm between the haves and the have nots.

East Renfrewshire comes in as the most unequal area in Scotland where the poorest fifth of workers take home less than £401 a week while the richest 20 per cent of workers earn £972 – equivalent to the poorest fifth earning 41.2 per cent of what fat cats take home.

While East Lothian works out to be the most equal place in the country, where the poorest fifth of full-time workers take home less than £383 a week while the richest fifth rake in at least £715 a week. This means that the poorest fifth earn 53.6 per cent of what the richest fifth do.