VARIOUS APPROACHES TO MEASURING EXCESSIVE INEQUALITY: NEED FOR REFORMS
The paper deals with systematization and critical analysis of the existing approaches to poverty measurement and the essence of excessive inequality. The author describes various interpretations of poverty level in the post-Soviet countries and in countries with developed market economies. The paper points at the urgent need for the transition from living wage which is survival budget to minimum consumer budget. The author emphasizes the importance of calculating relative poverty which will eliminate the possibility of using the resource method to determine the official poverty line and will introduce higher standards of minimum consumption in social policy.