It is a myth that low income earners experience the least increase in income – the opposite is the case.

The 20 per cent of the Danes, who earned the least in 2008, have experienced an increase in income of 132 per cent until 2017, while the 20 per cent earning the most in 2008 only collected an increase in income of 1 per cent. 

During the last two decades, the 20 per cent with the lowest income have experienced a five-year increase in income of 30-50 per cent without any clear indication of a trend in this growth rate. That punctures the myth that those with the lowest incomes have been disconnected from the growth in prosperity since the financial crisis.

The current analysis follows the same people over time. In other words, the income development is calculated for actual persons, who were a part of a given income group in 2008. Two conflicting views of the income development in Denmark have arisen due to the fact that other analyses use a different method. Statistics Denmark (Danmarks Statistik), for instance, divides the population into groups according to income in the start year, and examines how much income is needed in order to belong to each of the income groups. They apply the same method for the end year of the analysis. This method does not take into consideration the large replacement of the persons that you find in the low-income group in 2008 and 2017, respectively, thus, the analysis does not show, how the income has developed for the the actual persons, who belonged to a certain income group in the start year. Still, Statistics Denmark uses a choice of words, which misleadingly gives the impression, that the same people are kept at a low income over the period in question.