Many countries (among them the United States, Israel, Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Ireland) have levels of market income inequality similar to those seen in Latin America and the Caribbean, but are able to achieve very significant reductions in inequality (between 12 and 26 Gini index points, see annex table I.A.l). The bulk of that redistribution may be attributed to transfers, and within transfers, to contributory public pensions, which account for 55% of all transfers on average in OECD member countries (Journard and others, 2012). The region's high levels of inequality are not reversed through public intervention, as they are in the OECD member countries, basically because the region's labour markets have a high rate of informality, which in the long run translates into very limited access to pensions.