Social care· Low pay· Pay Does it pay to care? Under-payment of the National Minimum Wage in the social care sector 28 August 2013 by Matthew Pennycook Some care workers are being paid as little as £5 an hour – well below the legal minimum wage. Does it Pay to Care? shows that while headline pay rates for care workers who visit clients at home are set at or above the national minimum wage of £6.19 an hour, in practice those workers often lose … Continued READ MORE
Labour market enforcement· Labour market A Matter of Time: The rise of zero-hours contracts 25 June 2013 by Matthew Pennycook and Giselle Cory and Vidhya Alakeson It is not hard to see why zero-hours contracts can appear attractive to employers. They allow for maximum flexibility to meet changing demand. They can facilitate the management of risk, reduce the costs of recruitment and training, and they can, in certain circumstances, enable employers to avoid particular employment obligations. Yet it is clear that … Continued READ MORE
Welfare No Clear Benefit 30 January 2013 by Matthew Pennycook and Alex Hurrell Low-income families will see their council tax bills rise by up to £600 a year from April. As a result of council tax benefit reform, No Clear Benefit shows that three-quarters of local authorities are set to demand increased payments from the 3.2 million poorest working-age households who currently pay either no council tax or a reduced … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Pay· Living Wage Beyond the Bottom Line: The challenges and opportunities of a living wage 20 January 2013 by Matthew Pennycook and Kayte Lawton Beyond the Bottom Line, a joint report from the Resolution Foundation and IPPR, presents the first full economic analysis of the living wage in the UK, including: modelling its potential impact on labour demand and considering the potential costs of living wages for employers; analysing which workers and families benefit most from the living wage; … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Welfare Conditions Uncertain 5 October 2012 by Matthew Whittaker and Matthew Pennycook Conditions Uncertain finds that almost 1.2 million low-paid workers entitled to support under Universal Credit will have to look for extra work or face the risk of having payments withdrawn. The report reveals for the first time how many working people are likely to be affected by a new regime which will require the lowest-paid … Continued READ MORE
Low pay· Pay Low Pay Britain 2012 29 September 2012 by Matthew Whittaker and Matthew Pennycook One in five British workers – just over five million employees – are low-paid as the national minimum wage falls in real terms for the third consecutive year. Low Pay Britain 2012 shows that the nation’s share of low-paid work has grown steadily over the past 30 years to 21 per cent – one of the highest … Continued READ MORE
Pay· Living Wage What price a living wage? 7 May 2012 by Matthew Pennycook Paying a living wage is affordable for big companies in UK banking, construction, computing and food production sectors, according to this new report jointly published by the think tanks Resolution Foundation and IPPR. This new analysis shows that the average increase in the wage bill for listed companies in these sectors would be about 1 … Continued READ MORE
