This chart shows trends in before-tax incomes for households ranked by private income from March 2020 (just prior to the COVID recession) to June 2020 (when Australia was locked down, and effective unemployment reached 17%) and December 2020 (when most lockdowns had eased and effective unemployment had declined to 7%).

It shows that, from March to December 2020, average before tax incomes:

* Rose from $685pw to $741pw for the lowest 20% of households ranked by income;

* Rose from $2,005pw to $2,058pw for the middle 20%;

* Fell from $5,182 pw to $4,952pw for the highest 20%.

These figures indicate that income inequality declined despite the recession, an extraordinary result given past experience