Inequality

The Platinum Jubilee generation – those born as the Queen came to the throne – turn 70 this year. How have their lives changed during the Queen’s reign?

Top earners in finance have seen a sharp rise in pay in recent months, pushing up pay inequality in a reversal of pre-pandemic trends.

We consider who would be affected by each of the proposed MERs, and then assess whether the introduction of a minimum eligibility requirement is likely to achieve the government’s stated aim of ensuring that ‘students undertaking degree study have attained the baseline skills required to engage with and benefit from the course’.

Globalisation, inequality, feeble productivity growth, earnings stagnation, the falling labour share of national income — the most important features of economic life. And one institution binds them together: the firm.

The source of top incomes, who gets them and how they are taxed is important for understanding inequalities. How have top incomes and their source been changing over time? Who is in the top 1% - are they employees, or business owners or rentiers? How much tax do the top pay and should they pay more?

We consider key factors that have shaped labour market inequality in the United Kingdom over the last four decades, with a focus on technological changes and skill demand, labour market institutions and contract regulation.

The availability of work with good wages and conditions makes a big difference to our material wellbeing and the kinds of lives we lead. At this online event we looked at what has been happening to inequalities in the UK’s labour market, and what the big policy challenges are going forward.