An article examined the relationship between collective bargaining and the minimum wage in European countries, and how the pay bargaining strategies of trade unions and employers shaped the pay equity effects of minimum wage policy.
Source: Damian Grimshaw, Gerhard Bosch, and Jill Rubery, 'Minimum wages and collective bargaining: what types of pay bargaining can foster positive pay equity outcomes?', British Journal of Industrial Relations, Volume 52 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2014-Sep
A think-tank report examined the lives of London's modest earners (defined as those earning below average levels, but above the level at which they became entitled to benefits). It said that around one in five households in the city fell into this category, often working in essential jobs but increasingly finding it difficult to remain, owing to the cost of living. The report drew on examples from other countries, and concluded that there was a need to improve living conditions for this group through increasing incomes, reducing the cost of living for households earning between £20,000 and £43,000 (in areas such as housing costs, transport, and childcare), and creating social improvement districts to co-ordinate efforts. A second report provided findings from quantitative analysis that had informed the main report.
Source: Charles Leadbeater, Brell Wilson, and Margarethe Theseira, Hollow Promise: How London fails people on modest incomes and what should be done about it, Centre for London
Links: Report
Source: Margarethe Theseira, Changing Income and Spending Behaviours of London Households, Centre for London
Links: Report
Date: 2014-Sep
A report examined the potential economic impact of an immediate increase in the national minimum wage by £1.50 per hour in the United Kingdom, drawing on the 2011-12 Family Resources Survey and the IPPR/Landman Economics tax-benefit model. It said that the increase would benefit around 4.6 million workers, 60 percent of whom were women, and that the increase would be distributionally progressive, would improve the public finances, and could create jobs through stimulating the economy.
Source: Howard Reed, The Economic Impact of a £1.50/hour Increase in the National Minimum Wage, Unite
Links: Report | Summary | Unite press release
Date: 2014-Sep
A series of reports and briefings summarized evidence, practical points, and case studies on approaches and actions that might be taken by local authorities on a range of issues to reduce health inequalities (drawing on expertise from the Marmot Review). Reports covered: parenting programmes; home to school transition; pupils' resilience in school; reducing the number of young people not in employment, education, or training; adult learning; increasing employment for older people and people with disabilities; improving workplace health; the living wage; fuel poverty; home-related health problems; access to green spaces; and the economics of investing in social determinants of health.
Source: Local Action on Health Inequalities: Introduction to a series of evidence papers, Public Health England
Links: Overarching report | Themed reports
Date: 2014-Sep
A report said that the long term rise in housing benefit spending was due to housing and labour market restructuring as well as increased rent levels, and that reducing the trend in spending would require changes in the labour market, housing, and regional policy. It said that this would require measures such as: a substantial increase in the supply of low-rent social rented homes; changes in funding rules, including the use of receipts from right to buy sales to replace homes on a one-for-one basis; incentivizing rent restraint by linking universal credit for private sector tenants to a proportion of the rent (articulated in the report with some related conditions); the repeal of the under-occupation deduction from housing benefit (commonly referred to as the 'bedroom tax'); employer incentives for a living wage; and investment in infrastructure and skills outside of the south east of England (to stimulate economic growth and reduce unemployment).
Source: Ticking the Box... for a Welfare System that Works, Chartered Institute of Housing
Links: Report | CIH press release
Date: 2014-Sep
A think-tank paper examined policy options to address low pay and price inflation in the United Kingdom. It argued that the prices of goods and services had been rising significantly prior to the financial crisis, and that the policy response should not be greater government intervention (through price controls, regulation, higher minimum wages, and higher transfer payments), but should be more focused on supply side policies using measures such as the deregulation of land-use planning, energy markets, childcare, and other product markets.
Source: Ryan Bourne, Low Pay and the Cost of Living: A supply-side approach, Institute of Economic Affairs
Links: Paper | Summary | IEA press release
Date: 2014-Sep
A report said that the United Kingdom welfare system was deeply unjust, and proposed a system of basic income security, involving the integration of income tax and benefits into one system, and the payment of a basic income for all United Kingdom citizens at a rate that would be high enough to end poverty. The recommendations were discussed in the context of Scottish independence, or further fiscal autonomy, which the authors suggested would create the conditions for changes to the existing welfare system.
Source: Simon Duffy and John Dalrymple, Let's Scrap the DWP: The case for basic income security in Scotland, Centre for Welfare Reform
Links: Report | Centre for Welfare Reform press release
Date: 2014-Sep
A report examined the relative position of women and men within the emerging economic recovery in the United Kingdom and examined women's experiences in the recovery, drawing on a survey of low paid women. The report said that, since the start of the crisis in 2008, an additional 826,000 women had moved into typically low paid and insecure types of work, female under-employment had almost doubled, and an additional 371,000 women had moved into self-employment. It said that low paid work was contributing to a widening gender pay gap, and low paid women were particularly affected by the cost of living, with nearly half saying they felt worse off now than five years ago, almost 1 in 10 having taken a loan from a pay day lender in the previous twelve months, and almost 1 in 12 low paid women with children having used a food bank in the past twelve months. The report outlined seven priority areas for government action, and recommendations included: an uplift in the minimum wage; the extension of the living wage by encouraging the public sector to lead in its adoption; action on employment tribunal fees; and the implementation of section 78 of the Equality Act 2010 to require mandatory gender pay gap reporting in large companies.
Source: The Changing Labour Market 2: Women, low pay and gender equality in the emerging recovery, Fawcett Society
Links: Report | Fawcett Society press release
Date: 2014-Aug
A paper examined the roles that taxes and transfers played in redistributing resources and providing insurance across individuals and across the lifecycle, with a focus on results for women.
Source: Jonathan Shaw, The Redistribution and Insurance Value of Welfare Reform, Working Paper W14/21, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Date: 2014-Aug
A think-tank report examined possibilities for a measurement of earnings that included the self-employed. The report said that, at some points in time, calculations of average earnings levels that included self-employed workers would have been higher, but since the economic downturn they would have been consistently lower and the inclusion of self-employed earnings would worsen the figures on earnings levels since the pre-recession peak by between 20 and 30 per cent. The report called for an improved official measure of earnings that captured all workers, and the collection of better data that included more regular, accurate data on household income.
Source: Laura Gardiner, All Accounted For: The case for an 'all worker' earnings measure, Resolution Foundation
Links: Report | Resolution Foundation press release | Guardian report
Date: 2014-Jul
A think-tank report said that the United Kingdom still lacked an effective strategy for dealing with the issue of low paid work, and suggested a strategic framework for a co-ordinated low pay strategy, which explicitly aimed to reduce the share of low-wage jobs in the United Kingdom economy based on three actions: raising wage floors; enabling progression; and facilitating higher wage business models.
Source: Kathryn Ray, Beth Foley, and Ceri Hughes, Rising to the Challenge: A policy agenda to tackle low pay, Work Foundation
Links: Report | Summary | Work Foundation press release
Date: 2014-Jul
A report evaluated the changes made to the national minimum wage regime by the Employment Act 2008.
Source: National Minimum Wage: Review of the policy changes to the national minimum wage by the Employment Act 2008, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: Report
Date: 2014-Jun
An article examined the effects of parenthood across the unconditional earnings distribution in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It said that the three countries differed in within- and between-gender economic inequality and that income equality in Australia was slightly greater than the other two countries. The article discussed the more detailed results for both men and women, and concluded that penalties and premiums for parenthood reflected relative socio-economic position among women and men, as well as between them.
Source: Lynn Prince Cooke, 'Gendered parenthood penalties and premiums across the earnings distribution in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States', European Sociological Review, Volume 30 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2014-Jun
A paper examined the changing influences of pay, benefits, and taxes on the ability of working families to reach minimum living standards from the late 1990s onwards. It said that earlier gains were reversed in the 2008 recession, as earnings fell relative to prices and some in-work benefits were cut and, having come to rely on state support, low-income working families were affected by benefits changes. It said that the withdrawal rate of in-work benefits made it difficult to make up for any cuts to state support by increasing earnings, and that tax cuts had not fully offset the effect of reductions on in-work support. The paper considered future policy options to address the deterioration, including the known tax proposals of the three main United Kingdom political parties.
Source: Donald Hirsch and Laura Valadez, Wages, Taxes and Top-Ups: The changing role of the state in helping working families make ends meet, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: Paper | JRF press release
Date: 2014-Jun
The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill was published. The Bill was designed to: regulate abuse of the national minimum wage and use of the zero hours contract; make changes to childcare regulations; and prevent higher paid public sector employees from retaining redundancy payments if they returned to work in the same part of the public sector within a specified time.
Source: Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, TSO
Links: Bill | Explanatory notes | Related papers | DBIS press release
Date: 2014-Jun
A report provided findings from the work of the Living Wage Commission. It concluded that over 1 million people could be removed from low pay by 2020, with no adverse economic consequences, through more employers voluntarily paying a living wage. It said that the cost of introducing the living wage to almost 500,000 public sector employees could be met by higher tax revenues and reduced in-work benefits from over 600,000 private sector employees also being brought up to the living wage. The report noted the consequences of low pay for in-work households, and called on the government to support the voluntary scheme.
Source: Work That Pays: The final report of the Living Wage Commission, Living Wage Commission
Links: Report | Independent Age press release | Unite press release | BBC report
Date: 2014-Jun
A report examined why workers in the United Kingdom worked for less than the national minimum wage (NMW), to inform policy to improve the overall functioning of the system. It said that there were many and varied reasons why some people worked for less than the NMW, but there appeared to be two distinct groups of workers that did so: those who were aware of the NMW but chose to work below it because they received other benefits (such as flexible working, or accommodation) from their employer which they valued more; and those who were unaware of NMW and their eligibility to receive it.
Source: National Minimum Wage: Understanding worker behaviour in maintaining compliance with the law, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: Report
Date: 2014-Jun
The Queen's Speech set out the United Kingdom coalition government's legislative programme for 2014-15. It included plans for a Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill to include provisions to: regulate abuse of the national minimum wage and abuse of the zero hours contract; make changes to childcare regulations; and prevent higher paid public sector employees from retaining redundancy payments if they returned to work in the same part of the public sector within a specified time.
Source: Queen's Speech, 4 June 2014, columns 1-4, House of Commons Hansard, TSO
Links: Hansard | Prime Ministers Office briefing | Cabinet Office guidance | PMO/DPMO press release | NI Office press release | Scotland Office press release | Wales Office press release | BCC press release | IFoA press release | RICS press release | Scottish Government press release | TUC press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2014-Jun
A paper examined how working for a low wage affected the chances of currently unemployed people in Britain to find better-paid work, based on data from the British Household Panel Survey.
Source: Alexander Plum, The British Low-Wage Sector and the Employment Prospects of the Unemployed, Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Magdeburg
Links: Paper
Date: 2014-May
A paper examined the pay penalty for female part-time workers within low and medium-skilled occupations in the United Kingdom. It said that the pay penalty had decreased significantly over the period 1997-2006, and discussed the influence of changes in the nature and value of work tasks, including the role of computer work.
Source: Ahmed Elsayed, Andries de Grip, and Didier Fouarge, Job Tasks, Computer Use, and the Decreasing Part-Time Pay Penalty for Women in the UK, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market, Maastricht University
Links: Paper
Date: 2014-Apr
An article presented a geographical perspective on the campaign for a 'living wage'. It said that, whereas introducing the living wage had major cost implications for the particular employers and clients affected – increasing wages by approximately 30 per cent above the national minimum wage – it also had the potential to reduce costs across the wider society. There was thus a scalar dimension to making the argument for a living wage that could help to inform the future direction of the campaign.
Source: Jane Wills and Brian Linneker, 'In-work poverty and the living wage in the United Kingdom: a geographical perspective', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Volume 29 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
>Date: 2014-Apr
A report examined low paid work in the United Kingdom, considering skills gaps across occupations, sectors where low pay was most prevalent, and the case for state intervention. The report recommended a skills-based in-work progression policy to help increase pay, improve productivity, and reduce the level of in-work benefits paid.
Source: Nigel Keohane and Claudia Hupkau, Making Progress: Boosting the skills and wage prospects of the low paid, Social Market Foundation
Links: Report | SMF press release
Date: 2014-Apr
An article examined the relationship between income inequality and the values that people endorsed in developed (OECD) countries. It investigated the following dimensions of value systems: work ethic, civism, obedience, honesty, altruism, and tolerance. It said that, in most cases, no robust relation with income inequality was detected, but there was some evidence that larger income disparities were associated with a stronger work ethic. This suggested that income inequality might spur hard work not only through pecuniary incentives but also because it made people attach a symbolic value to work.
Source: Giacomo Corneo and Frank Neher, 'Income inequality and self-reported values', Journal of Economic Inequality, Volume 12 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2014-Apr
A report said that that under universal credit many working parents would not gain financially (and might be worse off) if they increased their hours of work, owing to additional costs, reduced financial support, having to pay for school meals, and their contribution to childcare costs. The report proposed a range of measures, including that: all children in households receiving universal credit should qualify for free school meals; that the childcare subsidy should be increased to 90 per cent of costs; that a second earner in a household be able to earn an additional £50 before their income from universal credit was reduced; and an increase in overall funding in universal credit for disabled people. It proposed increasing the benefit taper (the amount of benefit reduced per £1 earned) from 65 per cent to 70 per cent, to help fund the proposed changes.
Source: Pop Goes the Payslip: Making universal credit work for families, Citizens Advice
Links: Report | Summary | Citizens Advice press release
Date: 2014-Apr
A paper provided a summary of evidence about long-run changes in economic inequality (primarily income, earnings, and wealth) for 25 countries, including the United Kingdom.
Source: Anthony Atkinson and Salvatore Morelli, Chartbook of Economic Inequality, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality
Date: 2014-Apr
An article examined the growth of low-paid service jobs in London and its relationship to the emergence of the capital as a 'global city', arguing that the critical factor in employment change in the late 1990s was the increase in immigration from poor countries.
Source: Ian Richard Gordon and Ioannis Kaplanis, 'Accounting for big-city growth in low-paid occupations: immigration and/or service-class consumption', Economic Geography, Volume 90 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2014-Mar
A report examined how the gender pay gap (defined as the difference between men's earnings and women's earnings as a percentage of men's earnings) had changed over time, using ONS data sources. It said that the gender pay gap for all staff in the United Kingdom in 2013 was 19.7 per cent – slightly higher than in 2012, but markedly reduced over the longer term.
Source: Secondary Analysis of the Gender Pay Gap: Changes in the gender pay gap over time, Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Links: Report
Date: 2014-Mar
A think-tank published its final report on its review of the national minimum wage in the United Kingdom. It made recommendations for the government to take a longer term approach to setting the level, and to reform the process. It discussed the possibilities for a multi-level minimum, to vary by sector or location.
Source: More Than a Minimum: The final report, Resolution Foundation
Links: Report | Resolution press release | University of York press release
Date: 2014-Mar
An article examined possible reasons for the re-emergence of the 'living wage' as a policy demand. It said that thinking of low pay primarily as 'poverty pay' – caused by employers' failure to pay a living wage – raised practical and conceptual issues that were problematic; and it examined how far recent attempts to resolve such issues in the United Kingdom and elsewhere had succeeded. Alternative ways were needed of analyzing and addressing the two key issues associated with the living wage – low pay, and in-work poverty.
Source: Fran Bennett, 'The "living wage", low pay and in work poverty: rethinking the relationships', Critical Social Policy, Volume 34 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2014-Feb
An article examined the intertemporal distribution of income in 26 European Union countries prior to the onset of the global economic recession, using EU-SILC data for 2003-2007. New member states had typically seen individual incomes grow faster than other countries. Income gains had been disproportionately pro-poor in all countries. There had therefore been a regression to the mean both among EU countries and among individuals within countries. However, short-run income mobility had not significantly reduced inequality of time-averaged incomes.
Source: Philippe Van Kerm and Maria Noel Pi Alperin, 'Inequality, growth and mobility: the intertemporal distribution of income in European countries 2003-2007', Economic Modelling, Volume 35
Links: Abstract
Date: 2014-Feb
The government began consultation on its proposed child poverty strategy for 2014-17. The paper said that good progress had been made to date and that the government remained committed to the target of ending child poverty in the United Kingdom by 2020. It said that actions would be taken to address the root causes of poverty and set out aims to: support families into work and to increase their earnings; improve living standards and reduce living costs; and raise educational attainment. It said that employers, local agencies, and the devolved administrations would have a part to play in achieving the aims of the strategy. The government also published an evidence review alongside the strategy, which examined the causes of poverty and the barriers faced by families in improving their position. The consultation would close on 22 May 2014.
Source 1: Consultation on the Child Poverty Strategy 2014-17, Cm 8782, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO
Links: Consultation document | DWP press release | 4Children press release | Childrens Society press release | Citizens Advice press release | CSAN press release | Gingerbread press release | JRF press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Source 2: An Evidence Review of the Drivers of Child Poverty for Families in Poverty Now and for Poor Children Growing Up to Be Poor Adults, Cm 8781, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO
Links: Report | DWP press release
Date: 2014-Feb
A report examined how to improve high quality childcare and the measures that would enable greater balance between paid and unpaid work. It made three key recommendations: that the pay levels for childcare workers should be tripled and the career structure improved; for employers to move towards a standard 30-hour week, to improve parents' work-life balance; and for universal provision of high quality childcare.
Source: Jacob Mohun Himmelweit, Anna Coote, and Juliette Hough, The Value of Childcare: Quality, cost and time, New Economics Foundation
Date: 2014-Feb
A think-tank report examined options for reforming the national minimum wage in the United Kingdom and looked at the role and functions of the Low Pay Commission. It said that the minimum wage had some success in removing people from extreme low pay, but had not had the anticipated 'ripple effect' in raising wages and had, in some sectors, become the standard rate of pay. The report discussed ideas such as explicitly targeting the reduction of the share of workers who were low paid, for the government to set out its aims for the level of the minimum wage over the medium-term, and for extending and strengthening the activities of the Low Pay Commission
Source: James Plunkett, Tony Wilson, and Conor D'Arcy, Minimum Wage Act II: Options for strengthening the UK minimum wage, Resolution Foundation
Links: Report | Resolution press release
Date: 2014-Feb
An article examined the relationship between income inequality and access to housing for low-income home-owners and renters 'at market rent' across Europe. Higher income inequality increased the likelihood of affordability problems for low-income renters. There was a positive relation between inequality and crowding. Higher income inequality was associated with lower housing quality.
Source: Caroline Dewilde and Bram Lancee, 'Income inequality and access to housing in Europe', European Sociological Review, Volume 29 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2014-Feb
An article examined low pay persistence in Europe, drawing on panel data for the period 1994–2001. Poorly paid workers tended to stay low paid in many European countries. Although this partly reflected workers' characteristics, it said that a significant proportion was genuine low pay persistence – that is, causal in nature. The extent of low pay persistence did not seem to be systematically related to labour market institutions.
Source: Ken Clark and Nikolaos Kanellopoulos, 'Low pay persistence in Europe', Labour Economics, Volume 23
Links: Abstract
Date: 2014-Feb
A report outlined the interim findings of the Living Wage Commission, an inquiry into the future of the living wage in the United Kingdom. The report said that stagnating wages and rising living costs had hit those with the lowest income hardest, with increasing numbers of low paid workers finding it hard to manage financially. It said that the living wage could help to improve the living standards of the lowest paid whilst providing economic benefits. The Commission would produce a further report later in 2014.
Source: Working for Poverty: The scale of the problem of low pay and working poverty in the UK, Living Wage Commission
Links: Report | Living Wage Commission press release
Date: 2014-Feb
An article said that the increase in the national minimum wage at age 22 had increased the rate of employment of low-skilled individuals by 3-4 percentage points. Unemployment had declined among men, and inactivity among women.
Source: Richard Dickens, Rebecca Riley, and David Wilkinson, 'The UK minimum wage at 22 years of age: a regression discontinuity approach', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A, Volume 177 Number 1
Links: Article
See also: Richard Dickens, Rebecca Riley, and David Wilkinson, The UK Minimum Wage at Age 22: A Regression Discontinuity Approach, Discussion Paper 378, National Institute for Economic and Social Research
Date: 2014-Jan
A think-tank report examined the effects of workplace inequality. It said that workplaces with larger pay gaps between the highest and lowest paid experienced higher levels of discontent and lower levels of employee well-being, indicating a clear economic and business case for more equal pay distribution within organizations.
Source: The High Cost of High Pay: An analysis of pay inequality within firms, High Pay Centre
Links: Report | Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2014-Jan
An article examined the differences and similarities between the 'minimum income standard' (MIS) used in the United Kingdom and that recently developed for Japan. Although there were notable differences in the lists of goods and services that comprised the budgets, there were also some striking similarities. This suggested that the MIS methodology could be used in different countries to inform discussions on contemporary living standards and societal norms, and to enable international comparisons to be drawn.
Source: Abigail Davis, Donald Hirsch, Rie Iwanaga, Masami Iwata, Junko Shigekawa, Yuka Uzuki, and Atsuhiro Yamada, 'Comparing the minimum income standard in the UK and Japan: methodology and outcome', Social Policy and Society, Volume 13 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Notes: The minimum income standard is the income needed in order to reach a minimum socially acceptable standard of living, based primarily on popular consensus.
Date: 2014-Jan