At Last, the Minimum Wage Debate Is Growing Up
James Plunkett
This post originally appeared on James's Huffington Post blog
While low pay and in-work poverty have risen up the economic agenda in recent years, our policy debate has been stuck in a loop. Ask most Labour politicians about low pay and you can expect a well-intentioned but passive mixture of pride in the minimum wage and warm words on the living wage before the topic is changed to the importance of protecting support like working tax credits. Turn to a Conservative and the ingredients generally differ but are no less predictable, giving little more traction on low pay itself: a worrying silence on the minimum wage, a touching faith in general skills policy (and a falling skills budget) to help the lowest paid, before a swift change of topic to the importance of tax cuts.
Low Pay Is Fast Becoming a Defining Challenge of Our Age
James Plunkett
This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post
You can tell a lot about a downturn by the image that comes to define it. From queues outside job centres in the 1970s and early 1980s to the poll tax riots that preceded the early 1990s recession, the pictures that stick in the mind have a habit of reflecting the key economic and political challenge of the time. So what will be the iconic image this time around? Images of last summers' riots will undoubtedly endure. But the more representative picture of the squeeze so far would be much less dramatic: a low paid, part-time worker, struggling in to work each day, bringing home a wage that barely pays the bills.
Today's new figures from the ONS confirm what's been suspected for some time: low pay is fast becoming one of the defining economic challenges of our age.
The problem of low wage work runs far beyond workfare
Matthew Pennycook
This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post
The recent furore surrounding the UK government's Work Experience programme has centred somewhat narrowly on the rights and wrongs of large corporations benefiting from free youth labour. Largely absent from the debate has been the wider problem of low wage work in our economy. At a time of rising unemployment one could be forgiven for thinking that raising job quality and wages is hardly a priority. Yet there are good reasons for believing that, alongside the pressing issue of unemployment among low-skilled workers, improving low paid jobs will be one of the key routes to higher living standards in the next decade.
Precarious low paid work - often with little means of advancement - is now a key feature of labour markets in advanced economies throughout the world. A combination of factors have driven its onward expansion including declining worker bargaining power and technological advances that have driven down wages for tasks traditionally undertaken by low and medium-skilled workers while increasing the demand for low-skill, low-wage work in personal service sectors.
'Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings' 'earnings squeeze' 'squeeze' 'wage stagnation' #ows £10000 10p 2011 2012 50p 99% Affordable Housing Alex Hurrell America andrew haldane Anna Vignoles apprenticeships arrears ASHE assets Audit Australia autumn statement bank of england below minimum wage benefits borgen Boris Johnson borrowing budget budget 2011 Budget 2012 cameron care assistant centreforum child benefit child poverty childcar childcare CiF citizens UK coalition Commission Commission on Living Standards conservatives cost of living Cost of Motherhood costs council tax council tax benefit cpi CPIH daniel chandler datablog David Cameron david willetts de-coupling Debt debt forgivenes debt target degree dependency dilnot distribution Donald Hirsch earnings economy Ed Miliband education employment enforcement equity release felicity dennistoun female employment first-time buyers forbearance gap Gavin Kelly GDP gearing gender generation rent gingerbread giselle cory good life great stagnation gregg growth growth without gain Guardian HELP Committee higher rate higher rate tax relief hmrc holmes hourglass household debt household finances household income household spending Housing housing market huffington post IFS illegal in work income income inequality income tax increase indignados inequality inflation institutional investment interest rates international ippr Ipsos MORI James Plunkett jared bernstein jobs jobs gap joe coward John Van Reenen jrf Labour labour market lane kenworthy lee savage Left Foot Forward Lib Dems liberal democrats living living costs living standards living wage living wage foundation LMIs Low earners low middle earners low pay Low Pay Britain low pay commission low to middle income low wage low wage work machin marginal tax rate matt whittaker matthew hancock Matthew Whittaker mayhew measuring poverty median real wage median wage Mervyn King middle class minimum income standards minimum wage missing out mobility monetary policy Montague mortgage market mortgages netmums new statesman new statesman blog new year newby newham Nick Clegg niesr number paid below minimum wage Obama OBR occupy occupy wall street OECD older older workers ons pay pay and pensions pension Pensions pensions relief personal allowances personal finance pledge cards polarisation policy politicans politics poll poverty predistribution prescription charges prices priorities private rented sector private sector growth prospect public sector public services q2 growth recession recovery reduce credit card reform regional Rented Sector resolution foudnation Resolution Foundation retirement robin wales routine jobs rpi RPIJ rss savings Senate shereen hussein skills social social care social housing social mobility social mobility foundation society Sophia Parker southern cross Squeezed Britain Squeezed Middle standards state state pension age sutton trust tax tax and benefit changes tax and benefits Tax Benefits tax changes tax credits tax cuts tax relief The Spirit Level think tank think-tank threshold travel time trends uk underemployment unemployment unison Universal Credit university USA van reenen VAT Vidhya Alakeson voters voting wage wage growth wage inequality Wage squeeze 2013 wages welfare Welfare Debate welfare state White Paper women Work work incentives workers Working part time lower skilled job working poor young people Youth unemployment youth wages zero hours
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