You know things are out of whack when an investment bank is considering forcing its employees to donate to charity.

That plan is reportedly in the works at Goldman Sachs, with bonuses, some as high as eight figures, being paid to bankers this week.

Expected bonuses at Goldman Sachs average about $595,000 per employee, while employees of JPMorgan Chase average about $463,000.

Big banks are undoubtedly taking preemptive measures to ward off further public rage following the massive taxpayer bailout, and this is a year when non-profits could certainly use all the help they can get.

RON EDMONDS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

JP Morgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, left, and Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, leave the White House in Washington, after a meeting with President Barack Obama.

But rather than channel more money into pet causes for image repair, a more fundamental issue needs addressing.

That is the enormous disparity between the rich and poor, which by some measures is now the widest since just before the Great Depression. In this new Gilded Age, reducing that gap could do a lot more good than contributions to charity.

It benefits society in fundamental ways by improving health and raising life expectancy, while reducing crime, suicide, drug addiction, teenage pregnancy and mental illness, British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett argue in their new book "The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger."

An interesting and thorough review of the book is here.

In the U.S., the recession has widened the income gap because income declined most for middle-class and poor Americans, and poverty soared.

This week, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission will hold its first public hearings with top bank executives to begin dissecting the causes of the economic crisis. Meanwhile a campaign is taking aim at big banks by encouraging people to move their money out of them and into community banks and credit unions.

Bankers who perform well should be rewarded -- after all, the wealth they create often does help shareholders and the economy. But as they debate what to do with all the bonuses, evidence suggests that giving back isn't as powerful as taking less.