The concept of a “fair go” is quintessentially Australian. Yet it appears that our ideas about equality in this country may be increasingly ill-founded, with far-reaching implications.
A new report looking at the gap between beliefs and reality concerning wage inequality in a number of countries found that Australians significantly underestimate the number of people with lower-than-average earnings and overestimate how many earn in the top 30%. Their beliefs about what is occurring tend to mirror what they think should be the case rather than what is.
