Low pay· Living Wage A one-year holding policy on the minimum wage signals a shift of focus to employment rights 30 July 2024 by Nye Cominetti Today the Government published a new remit for the Low Pay Commission (LPC). The LPC are the independent body who recommend specific minimum wage rates to the Government – including the National Living Wage (NLW) which applies to workers aged 21 and over, and the age-specific rates for younger workers. But they make these recommendations … Continued READ MORE
Covid-19· Low pay· Pay Any further questions? From 'From loud claps to hard cash A new settlement for Britain’s low-paid workers' 3 June 2020 by Nye Cominetti We often have more questions submitted for our event Q&A sessions than we’re able to answer. Where this is the case, we’ll endeavour to respond to a selection of the most interesting or most representative questions that went unanswered. The questions below were submitted to our panel for the event From loud claps to hard … Continued READ MORE
Low pay· Pay· Wealth & assets· Political parties and elections Question Time’s £80K man was wrong about the top 5%. But the super-rich are on another planet Those in his earning bracket have far more in common with workers on average pay than they do with the 1% 28 November 2019 by Torsten Bell f you live in Bolton and earn more than £80,000, you’re rich compared with your neighbours. Really rich. The average pay for all workers is just £22,000 and one in four earns less than £15,000. And yes, you’re still rich among the country as a whole: only 5% of earners make more than £80,000 – … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Labour market· Low pay· Pay Feel poor, work more – the real reason behind Britain’s record employment 13 November 2019 by Torsten Bell Why are three million more of us working today than were back in 2008? How has our employment rate reached 76 per cent, when full employment before the crisis meant 73 per cent of us working? These are employment levels no-one thought possible a decade ago. There is almost no bigger change to our economy … Continued READ MORE
Labour Market Outlook· Low pay· Pay Never had it so good? Almost back to peak pay 7 November 2019 by Nye Cominetti The last time pay peaked was in August 2007. Average weekly pay was £513, measured in 2019 prices. Over a decade later, pay is finally set to go higher. In August 2019, the latest month for which we have our most timely earnings data, average weekly pay was £511. With real pay growth at a … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Living Wage The evidence backing a higher minimum wage is growing 4 November 2019 by Nye Cominetti You wait for a minimum wage report and then three come along at once. This morning the Treasury published Arin Dube’s keenly awaited review of minimum wage policy in the UK. Dube backs the Chancellor’s ambitions to raise the rate to two-thirds of median hourly pay, but offers useful honesty about the risks involved, as … Continued READ MORE
Low pay· Pay· Inequality & poverty A good year for pay? Five things we learned from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2019 29 October 2019 by Nye Cominetti This morning the ONS published the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) for 2019 – the most detailed data on employee pay available, telling us about high and low pay, the gender pay gap, and more besides. As a think-tank focusing on raising living standards, this is pretty crucial data for us, and for … Continued READ MORE
Low pay· Pay A rare political consensus has broken out over a higher minimum wage – but achieving it is far from straightforward 1 October 2019 by Torsten Bell The politics of the minimum wage don’t exactly fit our lazy stereotypes. Back in the pre-crisis days of supposed consensus, debates raged about whether the policy was right or wrong. Today, when political divides are huge, everyone is falling over themselves to agree that a higher minimum wage is the way to go. The Chancellor … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Pay Is the minimum wage pushing people into self-employment? 29 July 2019 by Nye Cominetti Two big changes in the labour market over the past two decades have been the rise in self-employment and the introduction and uprating of the minimum wage. Is there a connection between these trends? Legally, of course, there is no connection – the minimum wage applies to employees only. But economically, we would expect one. … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Pay· Living Wage Britain can afford an even higher minimum wage – but we need to tread carefully 30 May 2019 by Nye Cominetti Britain has long had a low pay problem. For most of the last two decades around one in five workers has been in low-paid work – earning less than two-thirds of the typical hourly pay – at any given time. This is a massive problem given how hard it can be to escape low pay. … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Pay The minimum wage: now the only question is ‘how high?’ 30 March 2019 by Nye Cominetti This Monday, the 1st April, 2 million people working minimum-wage jobs will start the week with a pay rise. The National Living Wage (NLW), the rate that applies to 25+ year olds, will rise by 38p, from £7.83 to £8.21. We project that this will increase the number of people paid at the wage floor … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Pay Minimum Wage 20th anniversary special Top of the Charts 29 March 2019 by Torsten Bell and Charlie McCurdy Afternoon all, It’s an historic day today. Lots of people were planning a party/wake. Big ones. But things have got derailed. No-one can agree on what to celebrate/mourn – or even when to celebrate/mourn it. There’s a serious danger no-one gets a party at all tonight. But don’t worry – TOTC is here to turn … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Cities and regions Why city regions should be leading the charge on tackling low pay 3 March 2019 by Fahmida Rahman Low pay in Britain is an issue of national importance. With around one-in-five employees classed as low paid, the share of Brits who fall into this category remains well above the levels achieved by the best-performing countries in the OECD. That said, within Britain, there are huge disparities in terms of where low pay is … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Labour market· Low pay Never mind the end of austerity, what about the end of low pay? 2 November 2018 by Conor D’Arcy While post-Budget debates on austerity and tax cuts rumble on, one clear living standards win on Monday was an increase in the National Living Wage (NLW). But beyond announcing the rate for next year, the government also used the Budget to set out a bold new aspiration that could have major implications: ending low pay. … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Pay Tackling the new frontiers of low pay 23 May 2018 by Conor D’Arcy Bad policies get the most attention. Whole books have been written on government interventions that achieved the exact opposite of what they intended, or eventually delivered at miles over budget. That’s why the UK’s minimum wage – effective, popular and cheap – is such a rare thing. The latest evidence confirms the minimum wage’s continued … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Pay It’ll take more than a higher minimum wage to tackle Britain’s low pay problems 18 May 2018 by Conor D’Arcy As a certain wedding this weekend highlights, some things get more attention than they deserve. When it comes to the world of low pay, all the talk in recent years has been about the National Living Wage. Now of course, this new higher minimum wage for those aged 25 and over is a big deal, … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Pay Are Sainsbury’s pay proposals a sign of things to come in low-paying sectors? 7 March 2018 by Conor D’Arcy Sainsbury’s has announced proposals to boost its base pay, from £8 per hour to £9.20. This, of course, is important news for the 130,000 people who work there, even if it won’t be welcomed by every one of them, as explored below. But the action Sainsbury’s has taken – and the ways it has outlined … Continued READ MORE
Budgets & fiscal events· Labour market· Low pay· Economy and public finances The Autumn Budget 2017 brings worse than hoped for news for the low paid 23 November 2017 by Conor D’Arcy or many people, the big news out of November’s Budget – a massive downgrade in the outlook for productivity growth – will sound a bit abstract. The productivity downgrade has made the Chancellor’s task of balancing the books harder. But its impact on pay – with average annual earnings lowered by £1,000 – mean it’s even … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Pay The national living wage has caused the biggest fall in low pay in 40 years – but how is this improving people’s living standards? 27 October 2017 by George Bangham Employment is at a 40-year high, while pay is stagnating. That, in brief, sums up the last few years of changes in Britain’s labour market. As Figure 1 shows, politicians rightly highlight that employment and unemployment are undeniably trending in the right direction. But the good news on employment has failed drastically to translate into … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Pay The latest on low pay 26 October 2017 by Conor D’Arcy To paraphrase the great Yogi Berra, making predictions is hard. That’s especially true of the future of the UK’s labour market. After all, the current combination of record high employment and falling real wages is not a forecast many economists would’ve made even a couple of years ago. But new Annual Survey of Hours and … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Productivity & industrial strategy· Low pay Morrisons matters: we need an industrial strategy for pay packets 25 July 2017 by Torsten Bell Like excessively floral play suits, industrial strategy has made a comeback from that strange land we call the 1970s. It’s all the rage. The government has named a department after it. Jeremy Corbyn is so keen to set that strategy free of European rules and regulations, he wants to leave the single market over it. … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Pay The gender pay gap at the top of the BBC is making headlines, but what about pay at the bottom? 24 July 2017 by Kathleen Henehan Last week’s row over pay at the BBC has rumbled on through the weekend, and put the gender pay gap back at the top of the news agenda. With the gender pay gap still over 10 per cent, and unlikely to end any time soon given current trends, it’s good that this topic is leading … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Pay What does the minimum wage battle in Seattle mean for the National Living Wage at home? 30 June 2017 by Conor D’Arcy The old joke goes that if you laid all the economists in the world end to end, you still wouldn’t reach a conclusion. A little unfair maybe, but for those keeping track of the argument around two recent – and conflicting – papers on the move to a $15 minimum wage in Seattle, it probably … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Pay It’s no April Fools’ Day for those on the National Living Wage 1 April 2017 by Conor D’Arcy In a year in which fake news has been a recurring theme, every day has felt a bit like April Fools’ Day. When it comes to the National Living Wage (NLW) however, while there might be some trickery over its name – when is a living wage not a living wage? – there’s no confusion … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Pay How did firms pay for the big pay rise in 2016? Through productivity and price rises, not job losses 20 December 2016 by Conor D’Arcy 2016 marked the introduction of a big, controversial new player on the political economy scene, whose influence is set to grow and grow over the next four years. No, this isn’t a blog about President-Elect Trump. For millions of low earners across the UK, another development has had an even bigger impact. The National Living … Continued READ MORE
