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| Hagen M. Krämer |
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| Christina Anselmann |
During the past few years, different studies have revealed that developments at the top of the income distribution have had a significant impact on overall income inequality in a number of nations, especially several English-speaking countries. For instance, while the income share of the tenth decile in the United States of America (USA) had declined from 46.3 percent in 1932 to 32.7 percent in 1943 and remained at this relatively low level in subsequent decades, it increased again from 32.7 percent in 1981 to 46.3 percent in 2010 (cf. Alvaredo et al. 2012) . The trend in Germany generally went in the same direction as it will be shown below. There is also another similarity regarding the composition of top earners’ incomes in both countries. Among the highest income groups, the income of top managers – which is statistically classified as labour income – makes up a growing fraction. In particular, the exploding remuneration of board members of incorporated companies and for certain financial professionals led to the emergence of the new phenomenon of the working rich. At least in the US they “have overtaken the ‘coupon-clipping rentiers’” (Piketty & Saez 2007, p. 152).
