US Government Is Worst at Reducing Inequality of All High-Income OECD Countries

The US government, through its tax system and spending, does the least to reduce inequality among all high-income advanced economies. The US market income Gini coefficient, a measure of how equally income is distributed across the population before government policies take effect, decreases by 22 percent after taxes and transfers like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The average reduction for countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is 37 percent.