Table 1.

Four Approaches for Inequality Comparisons [36]

Concept	Who/what is reference point?	Benefits	Limitations
Relative to average	The mean inequality of all individuals within a group	Often the easiest metric to obtain and compare. Can be used for both individual and group vs. group comparisons.	Group averages can mask important inter- individual inequalities
Relative to the best- off	Experience of the single best-off person in society	Can identify differences between poorest and richest individuals; easy to quantify for income	The best-off may not be a realistic equality standard, and the experience of the best off person may be difficult to quantify in a risk context
Relative to all those better off	The range of experiences of all those who are better- off than a given person/group	Allows a deeper understanding of scope of inequality within a group	Hard to identify the level at which claims would be deemed unequal
Relative to the best- off person whose condition is not anomalous	Compares individual claims to a determined "good enough" level	Allows for a more reasonable expectation of equality	Hard to define "not anomalous" in real-world context