RAMALLAH – A new Israeli study found huge and abiding gaps on wealth between different ethnic groups of Jews in Israel, men and women, Jews and Arab Palestinians. Israelis from an Ashkenazi background earn higher salaries than those from a Mizrahi background, according to a report put out on Wednesday by the Adva Center, a non-partisan policy analysis institute. The Adva Center, a non-partisan policy analysis institute, said in its annual report dealing with “equality and social justice in Israel” that Jewish Israelis of Ashkenazi, or European, origins earn higher salaries than those from Mizrahim, or Jews hailing from the Muslim world. The center said that the average monthly income of urban Ashkenazi salaried workers in 2012 was 42 percent higher than the average wage among all salaried workers, while Mizrahi urban salaried workers' wages were just 9 percent above the average. The center said that the Arab Palestinians earn 34 percent below the national average, which also factors in workers in rural areas. According to the report, the gap is almost unchanged over the past 12 years. The report also chronicled gaps between the sexes. The center said that women earned just 66 percent of the monthly income of men, although women's hourly wage was 84.9 percent of men's. It added that although the unemployment rate in Israel was relatively low at 5.8 percent compared with many Western countries, Arab communities experienced much higher unemployment - between 15 – 30 percent. Israel's poorest Jewish communities had between 10-15 percent unemployment.
