The survey also found that 68% of workers currently earn their desired salary or close to it, while the remaining 32% said they are not anywhere near their target pay.

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"These are workers who are most likely to spend virtually everything they earn, so it just pumps money back into local economies, " said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy group.

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This figure includes modestly paid workers at reception desks and in mail rooms, and it thus understates what senior bankers earn.

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It was one of the few times an oil sands project received such a designation, which also allows the company to reach a collective agreement with one union--in this case, the Christian Labour Association of Canada, whose members earn less and pay smaller dues than others--and apply it to workers from other unions.

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If so, the opportunity for the most able workers to earn more than before has increased the size of Britain's national income, which should make it easier to help the poor.

ECONOMIST: Poverty and inequality