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Category: Work

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Institute for Fiscal Studies briefing: Poverty and Low Pay in the UK

15 March 2018

57% of people in poverty are children or working-age adults living in a household where someone is in paid work.  

This is according to a March 2018 briefing from the Institute for Fiscal Studies on poverty and low pay in the UK. 

The briefing finds:

Low pay is highly related to lack of pay progression. The wages of the low- and high- educated, and of men and women, end up much further apart by age 40 than they were at the start of their careers
Experience and education are both positively associated with higher wages, but the association with experience is much stronger for the high-educated than the low-educated
The fact that women’s wages fall behind their male counterparts over the lifecycle is, in part, related to a remarkable lack of wage progression in part-time work.
Read the full briefing.

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Centre for Labour and Social Studies report: Labour Market Realities 2018 – Workers on the Brink

8 March 2018

Over a third of the entire working population state that they do not earn enough to keep up with the basic cost of living.

This from the February 2018 report (pdf) from the Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS) on the state of the UK labour market.

The report finds:

Amongst those aged 18 to 24 and 25 to 34, 39% and 44% respectively are struggling to make ends meet
Those earning £20,000 to £39,999 are more likely to think the economy is working badly and even among incomes in excess of £40,000, less than a third think the economy is working well
Over 50% of those employed in agriculture, forestry and fishing want more hours than their employer can currently offer.
Read the full report (PDF).

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Equality and Human Rights Commission survey report and campaign: Moving Forward

5 March 2018

6 in 10 employers agree that a woman should have to disclose whether she is pregnant during the recruitment process.

This is according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) who have published the results of their survey on maternity discrimination in the workplace, in February 2018.

The aim of the survey was to understand managers’ attitudes around pregnancy and maternity discrimination.

Findings from the survey include:

44% of employers agree that women should work for an organisation for at least a year before deciding to have children
40% of employers claim to have seen at least one pregnant woman in their workplace ‘take advantage’ of their pregnancy
41% employers agreed that pregnancy in the workplace puts ‘an unnecessary cost burden’ on the workplace.
EHRC have also launched a February 2018 campaign to combat these negative perceptions and end discrimination against new parents. Working Forward asks businesses to join the campaign and make the pledge.

Read the research report.

Find out on the Working Forward campaign.

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The House of Commons logo.

House of Commons Library briefing paper: Workers Underpaid the Minimum Wage

26 February 2018

The true extent of underpayment is very difficult to estimate, but a range of 1 to 2 million underpaid workers is likely, or between 4% and 9% of employees aged 25 and above.

This is according to the February 2018 briefing paper (pdf) from the House of Commons Library, which looks at what is known about workers paid less than the minimum wage. 

The paper finds:

HMRC found 98,150 underpaid workers in 2016/17. This was an increase of 69% from 2015/16, and the largest annual total on record
Data from the LFS indicates that 77% of those who usually do one or more hours of unpaid work per week are not paid a fixed hourly rate. In other words, most unpaid time is done by employees on a salary
For the same reason, ASHE does not capture the informal economy, for example, work paid cash in hand. Informal work is likely to have a higher rate of non-compliance with the minimum wage.

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Business in the Community

YouGov and Business in the Community survey: Race at Work 2018

23 February 2018

Business in the Community have launched a February 2018 survey to build further on the findings of their 2015 survey, Race at Work. 

They are keen to hear from all ethnicities – everyone aged 16 and over, employed or self-employed in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). 

The survey questions examine the following workplace issues:

How to talk about race
Pay gap monitoring and reporting 
Progression
Recruitment 
Workplace bullying and harassment 
The survey takes approximately 13 minutes to complete.

Complete the survey.

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Institute for Fiscal Studies report: Wage Progression and the Gender Wage Gap – the Causal Impact of Hours of Work

20 February 2018

The hourly wages of female employees are currently about 20% lower than men’s on average, having been 23% lower in 2003 and 28% lower in 1993.

This is from the February 2018 report (pdf) from the Institute for Fiscal Studies on the gender wage gap.

The report finds: 

The gender wage gap widens gradually but significantly from the late 20s and early 30s
Gender differences in rates of part-time and full-time paid work account for approximately half of the widening of the gender wage gap over the 20 years after the first child in a family is born
There is, on average, a wage gap of around 10% even shortly before the arrival of the first child.
Read the full report (pdf).

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The House of Commons logo.

Women and Equalities Committee inquiry: Sexual harassment in the workplace

15 February 2018

‘More than 40% of women and more than 18% of men have experienced some form of unwanted sexual behaviour in the workplace’, says the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC). 

WEC have launched a full  February 2018 inquiry on sexual harassment in the workplace and they are inviting submissions of written evidence.

This inquiry will sit alongside their related inquiry on the Sexual harassment of women and girls in public places.

WEC are inviting written evidence specifically on:

How widespread sexual harassment in the workplace is, and whether this has increased or decreased over time
Who experiences sexual harassment in the workplace, who perpetrates it and what the impact is on different groups
Actions that the Government and employers should be taking to change workplace culture to prevent sexual harassment, give people more confidence to report sexual harassment, and make this issue a higher priority for employers
How workers can be better protected from sexual harassment by clients, customers and other third parties
The effectiveness and accessibility of tribunals and other legal means of redress and what can be done to improve those processes
the advantages and disadvantages of using non-disclosure agreements in sexual harassment cases, including how inappropriate use of such agreements might be tackled.
Find out more on the WEC website.

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The House of Commons logo.

Women and Equalities Committee inquiry: Women in Executive Management

15 February 2018

‘There is significant under-representation of women in executive levels’, says the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC).  

As a result, WEC  have launched a follow-up 2017 inquiry into women in executive management.

The committee will build on its recent work on this issue with a one-off evidence session looking at:

How the situation for women in senior roles has changed since the Committee last took evidence
The barriers to women achieving senior positions
The measures being taken by organisations to improve the situation
Effectiveness of Government action to date and what further Government action is needed.
Find out more on the WEC website.

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Human Rights Watch report: World Report 2018

13 February 2018

Despite allegations of serious abuse in immigration detention centers, the UK
persisted in not imposing a maximum time limit for immigration detention, and
continued to detain asylum-seeking and migrant children.

This is from the January 2018 report (pdf) from the Human Rights Watch (HRW). World Report 2018 is their 28th annual review of human rights
practices around the globe.

The report summarises key human rights issues in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide, drawing on events from late 2016 through November 2017. 

The report finds: 

Germany over the past year made headlines when the Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the first far-right party to enter its parliament in decades
Despite a strong tradition of protecting civil and political rights, Australia has serious unresolved human rights problems. Australia continued in 2017 to hold asylum seekers who arrived by boat on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and on the island nation of Nauru, where conditions are abysmal
Bahrain’s human rights situation continued to worsen in 2017. Authorities shut down the country’s only independent newspaper and the leading secular-left opposition political society. 
In Bangladesh, civil society groups faced pressure from both state and non-state actors, including death threats and attacks from extremist groups.

Read the full report (pdf).

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