In the UK, for example, the person earning the highest corporate salary earns as much in a day as the person earning the lowest salary earns in a year. From 1980 to 1989, salaries of company directors rose by up to 856% in the UK at a time when the less privileged were exposed to reductions of: state pensions for a retired couple from 43.3% of average earnings to 32.7% (for a single person, from 27 to 20.5%); unemployment benefits from 21.5 to 16.3% for a single person; industrial benefit from 27.7 to 20.5 for death; maternity (34.7 to 25.2% for a couple; and invalid care allowance from 26 to 19.6% for a couple).
There is no standard universal income scale which guarantees all people the basic requirements necessary to sustain human life. There are also no adequate criteria that recognize the income needs of individual families.