The current cost of living is pushing more people into poverty, with almost 68% of low income...
Income distribution
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10/04/2013
Family allowances ‘not key’ to tackling inequality
Family allowances are less effective than policies such as childcare and parental leave in reducing household income inequality, according to a research study of a range of developed countries.
American academics looked at how welfare state policies were related to households' relative incomes for 17, mainly European and north American, countries between 1985 and 2005. They focused on the intersection between household income, family structure and parental education level.
Category: Reports -
09/04/2013
CEOs grab 16 per cent pay rise
Company chief executives have increased their pay by a total of 15.8 per cent in the latest year, thanks to large increases in bonus payments. A survey of the pay of 43,000 executives in 180 UK organisations reveals a growing gap between pay packages for chief executives and those for all other groups, including other managers.
Category: Reports -
04/03/2013
Potential for fairer income distribution
The potential for a fairer distribution of income has been highlighted in a report from the High Pay Centre. It charts the 'meteoric' rise in pay for those at the top of the distribution, and gives examples of how the resulting inequalities could be flattened out.
The High Pay Centre is a non-party think tank established to monitor pay at the top of the income distribution.
Category: Reports -
11/02/2013
‘Self-serving myth’ of global talent pool for CEOs
The justification frequently given for extremely high pay rates among company executives is a 'self-serving myth', according to the findings of a think-tank study. It says there is little or no evidence for the notion of a 'global talent pool', where high pay is supposedly needed to attract the best candidates.
The study draws on data from the 'Fortune Global 500' of CEO appointments from the largest companies in the world.
Category: Reports -
04/02/2013
Extreme wage inequality – new evidence
New evidence on the growth in pay at the very top of the wage distribution has been presented in a paper by researchers at the LSE's Centre for Economic Performance. The authors point out that the remarkable rise in the share of income and wages taken by those toward the very top of the distribution is a missing element in much recent research.
Category: Reports -
28/01/2013
Austerity in UK ‘hits high-income households hardest’
High-income households in the UK have lost proportionately more than those in poverty as a result of austerity measures, according to new research published by the European Commission.
Researchers compared the distributional effects of 'fiscal consolidation' measures in nine European Union countries (including the UK) that have experienced large budget deficits following the financial crisis of the late 2000s and subsequent economic downturn.
Category: Reports -
23/01/2013
Lone parent poverty ‘key’ to women's inequality
Tackling poverty among lone mothers can play a crucial role in reducing the lifetime inequality in incomes faced by women, according to an analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The report also points out that the tax and benefits system inherited by the coalition in 2010 was 'particularly successful' in reducing income disparities for women during the main childbearing years.
Category: Reports -
10/12/2012
Financial sector blamed for rising inequality
Major shifts in economic structure in recent decades are to blame for rising income inequality and the declining share of national income going to wages, say two new studies. The growing importance of the financial services sector is a key factor.
The first study, from the TUC, finds the share of national income going to wages has fallen over the last thirty years from 59 to 53 per cent, whereas the proportion going to profits has increased from 25 to 29 per cent. The main reason has been the decline of industries that spend a high proportion of turnover on wages (such as manufacturing) and the expansion of new industries that have a far higher profit margin (such as financial services). In fact the whole of the rise in profits' share of national income since 1980 went to just to one industry – financial services. That trend is also closely linked with rising inequality in incomes.
Category: Reports -
28/11/2012
Spending cuts ‘hit families with children worst’
Families with children are at greatest risk from cuts in public services, according to a trade union report that looks at the potential impact of cuts (other than those to benefits and tax credits) on different family and household types. Families with children fare much worse than households without them, whether they are in or out of employment.
The analysis is based on a model that allocates total government spending to households on the basis of which households receive and use particular services.
Category: Reports -
07/11/2012
Earnings gap widens since 1980s
The top 1 per cent of earners enjoyed a real-terms increase of 117 per cent over the 25 years between 1986 and 2011, according to a new official analysis – compared with the average of 62 per cent, and with just 47 per cent for those in the lowest decile group.
Category: Reports
