In the 1990s, less than 3 percent of people who started the decade in the bottom 20% of earnings made it to the top 20% by the end of the decade. Although this doubled in the 2000s to close to 6%, it remained very low.

To uncover the real level of mobility amongst people on low to middle incomes we conducted new analysis of the changes in their earnings across two decades: the 1990s and 2000s. The results can be read in Moving on up?

In our latest report, Snakes and Ladders, we look at the reasons why peoples’ earnings rise and fall during the course of their lifetime and what this means for households on low to middle incomes. How do gender, education, region and spells in unemployment impact on our ability to increase our earnings?

Publications

Moving on up? Social mobility in the 1990s and 2000s

Snakes and Ladders: who climbs the rungs of the earnings ladder

For more information please contact Lee Savage.

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