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With the release of the Sunday Times Rich List, here's some perspective

With the release of the Sunday Times Rich List, here's some perspective

While the media's attention is focused on the exorbitant riches of Britain's 1,000 wealthiest people on the Sunday Times Rich List this weekend, a different list is reminding us all to take a step back and look at the perspective.

If you earn an annual net income of £25,300 or more, you are in the top one per cent of earners in the world.

That's according to the Global Rich List, a website which shows how far your hourly income would go to fixing some of the world's biggest health problems.

Users can compare how much they make per hour compared to an Ethiopian factory worker, work out how many days of purified water an hour's salary could buy for a child, as well as how many mosquito nets could be bought for children in South Sudan.

It’s a twist on the rich list. It’s for everyone, and at a time when the media attention is on the 1,000 wealthiest individuals, people are likely to be conscious of the gaping disparity between rich and poor here in the UK.

The Global Rich List invites people to consider the rest of the world. Anyone on an average salary in the UK is in the top 1 per cent in the world: what a stark illustration of the breadth of inequality. It invites us to reflect on the reality of global poverty, and the positive impact of giving.

  • CARE Fundraising Director Sarah Taylor Peace

Users of the site are asked to donate an hour of their salary to the Life2Live campaign. The UK government has pledged to double everything donated until the 6th of July.

The Global Rich List is a nice reminder that we don’t need to be millionaires to be philanthropists. We want people to realise that an hour’s wage from someone on a low salary is just as kind and generous as a large gift from someone with great wealth.

  • CARE Fundraising Director Sarah Taylor Peace

More: The 10 most generous public figures

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