tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/low-pay-34716/articlesLow pay – The Conversation2021-10-15T10:25:39Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1693852021-10-15T10:25:39Z2021-10-15T10:25:39ZLow pay, long hours, high pressure: what it’s really like to be an HGV driver<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426666/original/file-20211015-21-7md907.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=80%2C33%2C4372%2C2930&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tring-uk-may-31-2020-single-1751851088">Shutterstock/Jarek Kilian</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/57810729#:%7E:text=They%20say%20the%20average%20age%20of%20HGV%20drivers,at%20the%20legal%20and%20business%20services%20group%2C%20DWF.">shortage of lorry drivers</a> in the UK has been blamed for <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/fuel-supply-crisis-why-is-there-an-hgv-driver-shortage-and-how-bad-could-the-problem-get-12417317">queues at petrol stations</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/aug/03/call-for-action-as-uk-driver-shortage-hits-supermarket-shelves">warnings</a> of supermarket shortages. As a result, some companies have <a href="https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2021/08/ms-offers-new-lorry-drivers-2000-sign-on-bonus/">reportedly</a> been trying to attract drivers with signing up bonuses and substantial pay rises.</p>
<p>But what is the job really like? </p>
<p>Driving long distances carrying vital supplies may sound appealing to those who like the idea of solitude and being on the move. Yet our <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/beacons-of-excellence/rights-lab/resources/reports-and-briefings/2021/may/disposable-workers-full-report.pdf">recent report</a> highlights serious concerns from drivers about their work. </p>
<p>We analysed hundreds of messages from online discussion forums and interviewed drivers to investigate the reality of life on the road in a HGV.</p>
<p>We often saw discontentment about a lack of work-life balance, long, unpredictable hours and low pay. There were also worries about relationships with management and work pressures. </p>
<p>The apparent shortage of drivers has seemingly done little to provide those who drive HGVs with any power or leverage. Describing the culture in the industry, one person said: “Drivers have their place. They can’t complain, they can’t do anything.”</p>
<p>And many took issue with claims of a shortage in the first place. One explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s a lie to get more people in so the hourly rate can go lower. It’s a con. If there’s a shortage of drivers, every company would be fighting for drivers [with offers of better pay]. It’s not happening.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another agreed, saying the situation “forces drivers to compete amongst themselves” because some employers offer such low wages. The implied message was, according to this driver: “If you don’t want to work for this money, we’ll find other people who do.”</p>
<p>Commenting on the competition for work, another admitted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m doing all sorts of strange shifts because if I don’t do it someone else will get my shifts. I’ll go to work and drive even if I feel like I haven’t slept enough.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One participant who agreed there were shortages offered this explanation: “There’s a shortage of drivers because the industry is living in the past. Look at the way people are treated. People are leaving right away.” </p>
<p>The treatment of drivers came up frequently in our study, which revealed displeasure with high levels of surveillance and scrutiny. As well as tachographs, which monitor routes and journey times, many lorries have cameras fitted which film both the exterior of the vehicle and the interior of the driver’s cabin. While these devices can ensure legal driving hours are not exceeded and record accidents on the road, many felt they were used as tools of micro-management.</p>
<p>One explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The route is analysed to the nth degree by somebody sitting in an office. Why did you turn left at that junction and why didn’t you go straight on? Why have you done this, why have you gone that way, why were you late getting there?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another said: “What makes this job miserable is that I feel like I’m always being watched.” </p>
<h2>Breakdowns</h2>
<p>Others complained that the unpredictable shifts and long hours were incompatible with any kind of work-life balance.</p>
<p>One commented: “We don’t have a social life. Most lorry drivers are the same. They’re either working away all week or they work very long hours during the day so when they get home, they’re too tired to do anything else.” </p>
<p>Another said of drivers: “Their marriages are breaking down, their relationships are breaking down. A lot of them don’t see their children or their grandchildren.” </p>
<p>One told us how he was missing out on his childrens’ development, saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t go to no parents evenings, I don’t go to no Christmas shows, no plays. I don’t see nothing. I don’t pick the kids up from school.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Concerns around pay were common. As the sector is highly competitive with low profit margins, many workers believed that wages are kept low to reduce overall costs. </p>
<p>One argued that there were plenty of drivers with licences who chose not to work in the sector, saying: “We’re not 50,000 drivers short. We’re actually short of 50,000 people that want to work at minimum wage. They’re just fed up with it.”</p>
<p>While our report reflects personal experiences and perspectives, it also provides an insight into the reality of working in a sector that effects all consumers. While Brexit and COVID-19 may have fuelled the driver shortage, there are deeper underlying problems which need to be addressed.</p>
<p>HGV drivers are a vital part of the economy, and more needs to be done to ensure they are supported. This starts with listening to workers’ experiences and concerns. As one driver remarked: “Government investment in overseeing the health and welfare of the industry itself is non-existent. They don’t take the trouble to go and speak to drivers – nobody does.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169385/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was funded by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in the UK.</span></em></p>What drivers told us about life on the road.Akilah Jardine, Visiting Fellow in Antislavery Business, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1495592020-11-11T16:22:45Z2020-11-11T16:22:45ZWhy living wages should be a priority during COVID-19<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368897/original/file-20201111-15-1f92dz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C21%2C3590%2C2549&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's a living, just: an NHS worker marching for a pay rise, July 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yui Mok/PA Wire/PA Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Work should lift people out of poverty - but, increasingly, those in low-paid jobs are suffering as much as the unemployed. <a href="https://www.livingwage.org.uk">The Living Wage</a> offers a solution. It is a wage sufficient to live a decent standard of life, independent of welfare and other public subsidies. While some have previously argued that living wages distort labour markets and increase organisational costs, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1359432X.2020.1838604">our review</a> offers an alternative perspective. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/47/1/47/4079898">results show</a> that poor-quality work has a more detrimental impact on health than unemployment. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100464">According to research</a>, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2020.04.046">disproportionate</a> accumulative impact among low-paid workers, in both health and precarious work. In light of this, a living wage is even more vital.</p>
<p>Until now, the study of living wages has <a href="https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.XXXVIII.3.490">been the preserve of economists</a>. But work psychologists, sociologists and management scholars are now examining the subject from a different perspective which focuses on the individual. Precarious work removes the responsibility from employers and forces significant costs on to individuals – and society, which has to make up for the shortfall out of government subsidies. Low-paid, poor-quality, depleting work needs to be recognised for what it is: unsustainable, deeply damaging and costly for any society. </p>
<p>Our review, an assessment of 115 papers of interdisciplinary living wage research, reveals three important reasons to support the normalisation of a living wage. </p>
<h2>1. Healthier employees</h2>
<p>Living wages stop working people from having to choose between heating and food. They help make workforces sustainable, providing more money to make feeding and supporting a family more viable.</p>
<p>Working a reasonable amount, without juggling multiple jobs or too many hours, allows people to recover more fully from their toil, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.93.3.674">reducing their fatigue</a>, boosting their immune systems and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797612439720">improving their general health</a>. As a result they take less time off work, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2004.028142">making them more viable employees</a> with longer life expectancy. More leisure time and increased means created by decent wages also promote <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.00977.x">improved family relations</a>, reducing levels of aggression in the family home. </p>
<p>We believe more time for activities such as bedtime stories with children has enormous benefits for a child educationally and in terms of their relationship with their parent, as shown by research from <a href="https://literacytrust.org.uk/blog/seven-things-i-learned-reading-bedtime-story-every-night-2018/">the Literacy Trust</a>.</p>
<p>It allows workers to have even a small amount of savings to buffer against surprise essential spending: new school shoes, a car or boiler repair. It allows families to make healthier choices, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5052-2">as research shows</a> that, given the means, people choose healthy food over cheap food - <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/nov/08/marcus-rashford-forces-boris-johnson-into-second-u-turn-on-child-food-poverty">even as food poverty rises</a>. </p>
<p>Less sick leave is not the only cost reduced by the living wage. Employers who pay it <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0b73b6f0link">are better able to retain their workers</a>, reducing recruitment and selection costs, and overtime paid to cover absent workers. Living wages help to increase the number and quality of new applicant pools. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118972472">Reduced turnover</a> of staff <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0b73b6f0">frees up management</a> from the time and costs associated with training. </p>
<h2>2. A more skilled workforce</h2>
<p>Capability is the second notable <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10301763.2016.1152533">benefit from living wages</a>. These workers have the means and time to <a href="https://eh.net/book_reviews/the-living-wage-lessons-from-the-history-of-economic-thought/">invest in themselves</a>. The possibility of returning to education and gaining qualifications creates choices for the future, or they may simply have time for a hobby. They can build careers, but also engage with lifelong learning, developing viable futures. They can start pensions, reducing their reliance on the state. These workers feel respected and better treated, which – together with the improvement to their health and well-being – further improves their quality of life, and with it their job and life satisfaction.</p>
<p>Investment can be made to up-skill the retained workforce. <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0b73b6f0">Productivity</a> <a href="http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/cwed/briefs/2014-%2004.pdf">improves</a> among these more expensive workers in a number of important ways. They can work harder because they aren’t physically or emotionally exhausted; they are less cognitively depleted; and they are less distracted by the worries and anxieties that accompany poverty. Productivity is also boosted indirectly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0421-9">through job satisfaction</a>, and improved attention to work, which reduces how often people make mistakes.</p>
<p>As well as improved production, these businesses see inventory and waste management costs decline. More alert workers notice problems concerning their work and have greater mental resources to come up with solutions, boosting the creativity and innovation of a workforce. They deliver a better-quality service and product, which enhances customer satisfaction levels. These workers feel more respected, so are more engaged to speak up and voice their concerns.</p>
<h2>3. Less reliance on state subsidies</h2>
<p>The state not only covers subsidised housing and welfare <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2473476">to offset shortfalls in these employers’ pay packets</a>. There are additional social, psychological and health consequences that arise from low wages. The cost of depression and other diminishing mental health afflictions <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen%E2%80%932014%E2%80%93007336">are raised by poorly paid work</a>, along with further health issues from elevated levels of heart disease, diabetes and cancer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5052-2">among these workers</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797612439720">The consequences of non-living wage workers’ dwindling health</a> casts shadows for years on their lives and those of their families, with the resulting complex caring responsibilities of these increasingly chronic conditions affecting other family member’s work and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0164027517742430">economic viability</a>. Those in low-paid work can expect to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/47/1/47/4079898">lose decades of their lives</a> compared to their better-paid peers. </p>
<p>All of these health factors add further strains on already resource-impoverished families, fuelling tensions in their relationships. Poverty has also been shown to lead to neglect, as parent ends up too exhausted from work or just not around. This <a href="https://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/2009-52DisparitiesELExecSumm.pdf">adds further strain</a> to remedial educational provisions, welfare and social care costs, and in extreme cases, additional policing and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002214650504600404">criminal justice bills</a>. </p>
<p>And it’s important not to forget the psychological consequences of being part of a stigmatised group such as low-paid or precarious workers – <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2003-07329-002">the sense of shame</a> and loss of identity experienced when a person feels like they do not contribute enough to society. </p>
<p>Living wages enable sustainable livelihoods for workers and their families. Beyond that, they provide the capability to shift out of poverty. In doing so they remove reliance on state subsidy, toward self-sufficiency and thriving.</p>
<p>Condoning any employers’ decision to forgo paying a living wage is not without costs: their chosen business model is predicated on a high but hidden subsidy, paid for by taxpayers and the state, and through the diminished lives of these workers. </p>
<p>Amid growing wealth disparity, COVID-19 has highlighted the consequences of low pay. There are choices to be made. Living wages <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/089124240426864">are a bedrock</a> to building sustainable and capable societies. When times are tough, why would you settle for anything less?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalind Searle is affiliated with European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ishbel McWha-Hermann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Recent research shows a living wage creates healthier employees, less pressure on government subsidies and a skilled workforce.Rosalind Searle, Professor of HRM and organisational Psychology, University of GlasgowIshbel McWha-Hermann, Lecturer in International Human Resource Management, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1267172019-11-14T10:32:44Z2019-11-14T10:32:44ZUK election 2019 could deliver the country’s first real living wage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301540/original/file-20191113-77305-b7ray8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A real living wage would make a big difference to those on low pay.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hands-holding-british-pound-coin-small-369962102">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The din of political parties outbidding each other <a href="https://theconversation.com/both-the-conservatives-and-labour-are-stretching-spending-rules-but-lack-vision-for-the-countrys-future-126784">on promises to spend more</a> on the NHS, education, transport infrastructure and housing has echoes of pre-austerity and even pre-Thatcher times. In a less familiar but no less noisy competition, both main parties are trying to persuade voters that they are committed to raising living standards by promising a significant rise to the minimum wage. We could well see a transformative assault on low pay in the UK.</p>
<p>As recently as 2015, the hourly national minimum wage was just £6.50. Today, for over-25s, it is £8.21. Promising to raise and extend this national living wage, as it’s now called, the Tories <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/sep/30/conservatives-pledge-raise-national-living-wage-by-2024">have a target of £10.50 an hour</a>, paid to all over-21s, by 2024. Labour pledges £10 for all over-16s next year. These promised increases – to up to 40% in real terms above the 2015 level – represent a striking new feature of UK politics.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.agendapub.com/books/18/the-living-wage">The UK came late to minimum wages</a>, with the first national minimum wage introduced only in 1999. That was 30 years after France, 65 years after the US, and around a century after Australia and New Zealand. </p>
<p>Labour and the unions had feared a national minimum would undermine the collective bargaining system whereby pay deals were negotiated in individual occupations and sectors. Free-market Conservatives criticised public interference in the labour market and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-old-idea-of-the-living-wage-has-been-embraced-by-the-political-establishment-78635">opposed the minimum wage at its inception</a>. Yet 20 years later, their rhetoric promises nothing less than to <a href="https://vote.conservatives.com/news/sajid-javid-speech">“end low pay altogether”</a>.</p>
<p>In trying to understand this phenomenon, it is worth asking where this new politics of pay is coming from, what exactly the present promises mean, and where it is all going.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-old-idea-of-the-living-wage-has-been-embraced-by-the-political-establishment-78635">How the old idea of the living wage has been embraced by the political establishment</a>
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<h2>The switch to a ‘living’ wage</h2>
<p>The national minimum wage introduced in 1999 was set at a low level designed only to tackle extreme low pay. Over the next 15 years, policies to raise this level were predominantly cautious, guided by a desire not to make hiring people unaffordable and thus reduce the number of jobs. Any increase was subject to Low Pay Commission advice on what increases were safe in these terms. </p>
<p>But falling real pay in the early 2010s became associated with a crisis in living standards. So the campaign for a Living Wage at a higher level than the statutory minimum started gaining political traction. </p>
<p>This was supported by <a href="https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/crsp/mis/thelivingwage/">our research at Loughborough University</a>, which shows clearly that the national minimum wage is not enough to provide a minimum living standard that’s considered acceptable by the general public. The “real living wage” now paid voluntarily by <a href="https://www.livingwage.org.uk/accredited-living-wage-employers">over 5,000 accredited employers</a>, is based on this research. Its new levels, just announced, are £10.75 in London and £9.30 outside.</p>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.livingwage.org.uk/news/real-living-wage-increases-2019-20">Living Wage Foundation</a></span>
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<p>After the 2015 election, the then chancellor, George Osborne, transformed the politics of minimum wages by <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/budget-july-2015">announcing the national living wage</a>. It brought a substantial increase in the compulsory minimum for over-25s, which <a href="https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/July-2015-EFO-234224.pdf">moves the UK</a> from paying an internationally below-average minimum rate to one of the world’s highest, relative to average pay. </p>
<p>This reversal for the Conservatives was driven by a desire to address living standards, while actually cutting public spending. The latter was proposed through cuts to tax credits paid to low-income workers, arguing that they would need these less if pay improved. <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/will-2015-summer-budget-improve-living-standards-2020#jl_downloads_0">These sums did not add up</a>, and fierce criticism of tax credit cuts caused some of them to be reversed. Nonetheless, the pledge to raise minimum pay for over-25s, from about 52% of median pay in 2015 to 60% in 2020, is being kept.</p>
<p>Even without cuts, the policy <a href="https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/July-2015-EFO-234224.pdf">is projected to save the Treasury money overall</a>. Paying people more brings a boost to tax receipts and reduces tax credits through the means test. Such savings would be limited if an increased minimum were adequately followed through in more public funds for low-paid sectors such as social care (<a href="http://ftp.iza.org/dp11474.pdf">which has not happened</a>). Nevertheless, it’s politically attractive to have a policy that makes people better off without having to raise more public money.</p>
<h2>Be careful of politics</h2>
<p>Of the present commitments, Labour’s £10 in 2020 pledge bears a closer resemblance to a true living wage, since it is in principle linked to our “real living wage” calculation based on living costs. The Conservatives’ targets are linked to median pay rather than living costs, rising from 60% to two thirds of the median in the coming parliament. Both versions involve bold ambitions that could bring the minimum wage at least to the level of the “real living wage” outside London.</p>
<p>This new willingness to raise people’s living standards, largely at the expense of employers, rests on dropping qualms about the potentially damaging effects on employment rates. Two decades of research for the Low Pay Commission, which advises the government on the minimum wage, backs this up. It shows largely negligible effects so far of the minimum wage on the number of jobs available. </p>
<p>The economist who reviewed this issue for the government, Arindrajit Dube, is <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/844350/impacts_of_minimum_wages_review_of_the_international_evidence_Arindrajit_Dube_web.pdf">cautiously optimistic</a> that raising it further will not have adverse effects on jobs. But he also warns that it must be monitored in case there are.</p>
<p>Whichever policy is introduced involves a crucial competition between political commitment and economic realism. The louder the political promises, the harder it will become to show caution where needed. Significantly, Conservative chancellor, Sajid Javid set his £10.50 target at the latest party conference, a month before Dube’s review gave it the amber light. Shadow chancellor, John McDonnell first called for a compulsory minimum based on a “real living wage” <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37470492">three years ago</a>, and has been highlighting this policy ever since.</p>
<p>You may expect that, as the person who leads the work used to calculate the real living wage, I would welcome unreservedly a commitment to make it compulsory. Yet just as Dube is cautious about unconditional targets from an economic perspective, I am cautious from the point of view of politics and policy. </p>
<p>The living wage movement has made extraordinary strides. But the biggest thing that could set it back, or even kill it, would be clear-cut evidence that it is destroying jobs. So whichever party wins the election, preventing the new national living wage from rising to damaging levels may be the single most important ingredient in permanently ending low pay in the UK.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300094/original/file-20191104-88372-xpdf2e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300094/original/file-20191104-88372-xpdf2e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300094/original/file-20191104-88372-xpdf2e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300094/original/file-20191104-88372-xpdf2e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300094/original/file-20191104-88372-xpdf2e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300094/original/file-20191104-88372-xpdf2e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300094/original/file-20191104-88372-xpdf2e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-2?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKGE2019&utm_content=GEBannerA">Click here to subscribe to our newsletter if you believe this election should be all about the facts.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald Hirsch receives funding from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, is a member of the Labour Party and co-author of The Living Wage from Agenda Publishing.</span></em></p>Promised increases from both sides are a striking new feature of UK politics and could be transformative for many.Donald Hirsch, Professor of Social Policy, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1197032019-07-09T10:10:29Z2019-07-09T10:10:29ZZero-hour contracts take a huge mental and physical toll – poor eating habits, lack of sleep and relationship problems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283111/original/file-20190708-51278-1uq0b74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The number of workers on zero-hours contracts <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-zero-hours-contracts-could-be-making-you-ill-77998">continues to rise in the UK</a>. The <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/emp17peopleinemploymentonzerohourscontracts">Office for National Statistics (ONS)</a> estimates that between October and December 2018 there were between 777,000 and 911,000 people working on zero-hours contracts. But the impact of such contracts seems to be underestimated by the government.</p>
<p>An independent government <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/627671/good-work-taylor-review-modern-working-practices-rg.pdf">review of modern working practices</a> states that: “To ban <a href="https://www.gov.uk/contract-types-and-employer-responsibilities/zero-hour-contracts">zero-hours contracts</a> in their totality would negatively impact many more people than it helped”. The report mentions that almost a fifth of people on zero-hours contracts are in full-time education and banning zero-hour contracts would make it difficult for them to combine work and studying. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/roiw.12316">research</a> has demonstrated how detrimental zero-hour contracts can be on the psychological and mental well-being of workers. <a href="http://researchprofiles.herts.ac.uk/portal/files/12097546/Report.pdf">Anxiety, stress and depression</a> can be common for workers on zero-hours contracts because of the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/zero-hours-contracts-are-tip-of-the-iceberg-of-damaging-shift-work-say-researchers">financial and social insecurity</a>. </p>
<p>Workers on zero-hours contracts are not paid sick leave and tend to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-34178412">work even when they are ill</a> for fear of losing their jobs. So although <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/mind/world-mental-health-day-charts-show-uk-midst-mental-health-awakening/">statistics</a> show that a third of all sickness notes signed off by GPs between September 2016 and September 2018 were for <a href="https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health">mental health reasons</a>, the reality is that the number of people struggling with mental health problems while in work is likely to be much higher as these statistics do not include workers on zero-hours contracts.</p>
<p>As part of <a href="http://researchprofiles.herts.ac.uk/portal/files/12097546/Report.pdf">our research</a>, we interviewed 35 zero-hours contract workers and heard how this precarious employment situation was affecting their lives. They told us how a lack of sufficient sleep, poor eating habits and relationship problems were all contributing to the mental toll of being on a zero-hours contract – as one of our interviewees explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m just tired and don’t have enough sleep … because when you sometimes finish work maybe [at] 11pm, you get home, all you need to do is eat and go to sleep straight away, so you don’t give yourself time for that food to even digest. Everything is mixed up because you are on a zero-hour contract and you don’t work specific times, [so your] timing is not stable.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Zero balance</h2>
<p>For many workers on zero-hours contracts, there is a distinct lack of work-life balance. The uncertainty of not knowing when work might be – during the <a href="https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/zero-hour-workers-twice-likely-work-%E2%80%9Chealth-risk%E2%80%9D-night-shifts-%E2%80%93-tuc-analysis">night</a> or day – and when they should sleep, are issues workers on zero-hours contracts must deal with on daily basis.<br>
Financial insecurity also means that workers are unable to refuse work when it’s offered at a time when they should be sleeping. The fear of not getting subsequent job calls means that workers feel they cannot refuse work even if they’re exhausted – which impacts upon their <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322994.php">mood</a> and <a href="https://www.hult.edu/blog/how-sleep-deprivation-affects-work-and-performance/">productivity</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283112/original/file-20190708-51273-qq0400.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283112/original/file-20190708-51273-qq0400.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283112/original/file-20190708-51273-qq0400.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283112/original/file-20190708-51273-qq0400.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283112/original/file-20190708-51273-qq0400.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283112/original/file-20190708-51273-qq0400.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283112/original/file-20190708-51273-qq0400.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">People on zero-hour contracts are more than twice as likely to work night shifts, and are paid a third less an hour than other workers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pexels</span></span>
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<p>The zero-hours contract workers we interviewed also spoke about not having enough time to eat or having poor eating habits due to their unstable working hours. Some workers on zero-hour contracts are given shorter breaks than permanent colleagues – forcing them to skip meals or eat fast food more often. One of our interviewees explained the impact this had on their life:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It really affects stuff like eating … you’re kind of holding on to eat until they let you [and] it affects the way you eat, it affects your social life.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Life on hold</h2>
<p>The workers we spoke with explained how the precariousness of zero-hours contracts meant they had had to miss or cancel family commitments because work suddenly became available. For them, everything has to stop when a job call comes through. Participants spoke of the stress of being pulled in two directions – needing to earn money to meet household expenses but also wanting to spend time with their family or partner. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sometimes I run into problems with my wife because I haven’t money for the family … when you’ve got kids going to school, you’ve got people who have to eat … you’ve got bills … [and] you’ve got to buy clothes for them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The UK is experiencing <a href="https://londonlovesbusiness.com/employment-hits-record-32-7m-in-work/">record levels of employment</a>, with over 32m people in work. But many workers and their families continue to struggle to survive financially. And as our research shows, although more people may be employed than ever before, the jobs they are in are often precarious, unstable and unreliable. There has also been a rise in the number of people who have to work in <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-the-low-pay-workforce-when-seven-jobs-just-isnt-enough-106979">more than one low paid job</a> to make ends meet. </p>
<p>Zero-hours contracts exploit workers. And despite what the government’s report suggests, and the fact that zero-hours contracts tend to work very well for employers, the vast majority of people on zero-hours contracts want out. The only way to tackle this situation is to ban zero-hours contracts altogether. This will enable more people to have access to secure jobs with decent working hours and opportunities for progression.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119703/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janet Barlow is affiliated with Christians on the Left</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Zero-hours contracts exploit workers and need to be banned.Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi, Senior Lecturer and Cohort Tutor, Hertfordshire Law School, University of HertfordshireJanet Barlow, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of HertfordshireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1148672019-04-08T13:52:45Z2019-04-08T13:52:45ZNational living wage is not enough to fix Britain’s low-pay problem – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268098/original/file-20190408-2931-1uzequ2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Not much for an hour's work.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hand-british-pounds-coins-uk-currency-384451150">Claudio Divisia / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The legal minimum wage is vital for regulating low pay and preventing exploitation. But it is insufficient on its own to reduce poverty for working people and protect living standards. It is also contradicted by broader Conservative government policies which are causing income inequality, debt, and weak collective representation, which are detrimental for working people.</p>
<p>On April 1, about 1.6m workers received a 4.9% rise in the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates">National Living Wage</a>. This is the compulsory minimum wage for workers aged 25 plus, and it increased from £7.83 to £8.21 per hour. Workers under 25 received lower minimum wage rises (which some suggest discriminates against younger people). Rates are recommended by the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/low-pay-commission/about">Low Pay Commission</a>, whose remit is to reduce low pay without adverse impacts on employment and the economy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267841/original/file-20190405-180036-1kaqo8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267841/original/file-20190405-180036-1kaqo8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267841/original/file-20190405-180036-1kaqo8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267841/original/file-20190405-180036-1kaqo8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267841/original/file-20190405-180036-1kaqo8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267841/original/file-20190405-180036-1kaqo8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267841/original/file-20190405-180036-1kaqo8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267841/original/file-20190405-180036-1kaqo8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nhf.info/public/images/nmw-chart-2019-a.jpg">NHF</a></span>
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<p>The government is aiming to increase the national living wage to 60% of median earnings by 2020, depending on economic conditions. It is a remarkable transformation – given that Conservatives opposed the minimum wage when Labour introduced it in <a href="https://www.politics.co.uk/reference/national-minimum-wage">1999</a> – that Tory Chancellor <a href="https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/spring-statement-minimum-wage-review-and-early-apprenticeship-reforms/">Philip Hammond</a> endorses minimum wage targets rivalling the highest <a href="https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/article/2019/minimum-wages-in-2019-first-findings">European comparators</a>. </p>
<p>Predicted <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/low-pay-commission-publishes-research-on-the-effects-of-the-minimum-wage-on-employment-and-automation">job losses</a> due to the minimum wage have not occurred. But the <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.358671!/file/JRF-informal-economy-and-poverty.pdf">informal economy</a>, where employers and the “self-employed” operate outside of government regulation, has grown and some smaller firms, especially, find it challenging to pay the national living wage. Arguments that minimum wages give the low-paid higher disposable income and benefit the economy, seem accurate. But there are serious problems with <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/645462/Non-compliance_and_enforcement_with_the_National_Minimum_Wage.pdf">enforcement, non-compliance and underpayment</a>. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-old-idea-of-the-living-wage-has-been-embraced-by-the-political-establishment-78635">How the old idea of the living wage has been embraced by the political establishment</a>
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<h2>The ‘real living wage’</h2>
<p>Yet the national living wage is arguably not a real living wage. Statutory minimum wages are inadequate to address working poverty and living costs. Through its <a href="https://www.livingwage.org.uk/">Living Wage Foundation</a>, Citizens UK introduced a voluntary “real living wage”. The foundation recommends this real living wage by annually calculating what workers need to afford basic living costs like housing, bills and food. The voluntary wage is higher than the misleadingly rebranded “national living wage” introduced by then chancellor George Osborne in 2016. In May 2019, the real living wage increases by 2.9% to £9 outside London and 3.4% to £10.55 in London. </p>
<p>Over 5,000 employers voluntarily pay it and are accredited by the Living Wage Foundation. These include public sector organisations like some councils and universities, as well as private sector companies like insurers Aviva, retailer Ikea, Nationwide building society, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-footballs-richest-clubs-fail-to-pay-staff-a-real-living-wage-74347">some football clubs</a>. </p>
<p>Many employers view it as ethical. And research also shows a <a href="https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/employers-and-the-real-living-wage_2017-responding-to-civil-regulation_tcm18-39491.pdf">business case</a> for paying the real living wage. This matters for establishing examples of good employers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268123/original/file-20190408-2935-1n81dph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268123/original/file-20190408-2935-1n81dph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268123/original/file-20190408-2935-1n81dph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268123/original/file-20190408-2935-1n81dph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268123/original/file-20190408-2935-1n81dph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268123/original/file-20190408-2935-1n81dph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268123/original/file-20190408-2935-1n81dph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268123/original/file-20190408-2935-1n81dph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.livingwage.org.uk/what-real-living-wage">Living Wage Foundation</a></span>
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<h2>Deep deficiencies</h2>
<p>Conservative party policy relies too heavily on the national living wage as a single economic measure to address living standards. It is also undermined by other policies that hurt people in low-paid work and increase inequality.</p>
<p>As established, legal minimum wages alone are insufficient for what many people <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/nationallivingwageearnersfallshortofaveragefamilyspending/2018-03-28">need to live</a>. This is because austerity policies have forced <a href="https://theconversation.com/austerity-has-pushed-the-uks-poorest-households-further-into-debt-heres-how-113383">people to take on more debt</a> and essentials like housing, energy and <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/privatisation-put-50bn-on-cost-of-running-railway-study-claims-v7nvxkrgc">transport</a> <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-39933817">have risen</a> – partly due to public services being privatised and outsourced, as well as <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2017/10/privatisation-rip-has-gone-long-enough-and-public-knows-it">excessive profiteering</a>. </p>
<p>This has been compounded by <a href="https://theconversation.com/failures-and-u-turns-the-conservative-partys-record-on-welfare-56634">welfare cuts</a>, including the <a href="https://theconversation.com/skint-britain-response-to-series-about-life-on-universal-credit-shows-government-is-still-not-listening-112089">Universal Credit debacle</a>, since 2010. Raising minimum wages to tackle working poverty is like placing a plaster on an open wound when living costs have risen and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/oct/28/future-welfare-state-cuts-care-health-education">welfare state</a> and public services are being eviscerated.</p>
<p>Low pay is symptomatic of deeper systemic deficiencies in the UK economy and <a href="https://theconversation.com/listening-to-employees-ideas-could-solve-uks-productivity-slowdown-100114">poor comparative productivity</a>. Cost competition dominates business strategy; notably service sector employers with large quantities of poor quality low-skilled jobs. <a href="https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/work/job-quality-value-creation/measuring-job-quality-report">Job quality</a>, not just quantity, needs attention. </p>
<p>Stark <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/lowandhighpayuk/2018">regional pay inequalities</a> also exist: the proportion of low-paid employee jobs in the UK’s regions is double that of London. The UK badly requires proper regional industrial strategy, not only encompassing manufacturing, but a <a href="https://neweconomics.org/campaigns/green-new-deal">Green New Deal</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-focus-on-the-foundations-of-the-uks-economy-might-help-poorest-regions-post-brexit-111132">foundations of the economy</a>. This could increase fair pay and decent work.</p>
<h2>Rebuild collective bargaining</h2>
<p>Minimum wage legislation only establishes an individual minimum pay floor. But many employers interpret it as a pay ceiling – something they pay, to meet regulation, but won’t go above. Declining trade union membership substantially limits the power of employees to negotiate higher wages and other benefits.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tuc.org.uk/blogs/oecd-says-collective-bargaining-best-way-deliver-better-work">Collective bargaining</a> and other institutions like <a href="https://theconversation.com/wage-councils-could-address-endemic-pay-inequality-in-the-uk-economy-102682">Wage Councils</a> need strengthening and rebuilding so that power is distributed more evenly in British workplaces. Most workers don’t have enough power individually to bargain wages above the legal minimum. Plus, trade unions play a crucial role in <a href="https://www.ippr.org/files/2018-08/1535639099_prosperity-and-justice-ippr-2018.pdf">boosting productivity</a>.</p>
<p>Thus, Britain still has a low pay problem. For many, real wages (adjusted for inflation) are no higher <a href="https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/13073">than before the 2008 financial crisis</a>. Low pay is <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/lowandhighpayuk/2018">defined</a> as two thirds of median hourly earnings, which is £8.52 at the moment. The proportion of low-paid employee jobs measured by weekly earnings was 27.3% in 2018. Large numbers of workers are clustered at or just above national living wage thresholds. </p>
<p>So while statutory minimum wages are vital for regulating low pay, they do not provide a real living wage. They are an insufficient response from the government to inequalities that are caused by deeper structural issues with the UK economy and political choices associated with <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/why-we-badly-need-trickle-up-economics-to-boost-workers_uk_5b058e63e4b0b22f55b90f16?guccounter=1">“trickle-down economics”</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/aug/18/neoliberalism-the-idea-that-changed-the-world">neoliberalism</a>. The UK is increasingly now a low-tax, deregulated, market economy. Unless these causes of low pay are targeted by <a href="https://www.ippr.org/cej">radically alternative policies</a>, income inequalities will persist.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114867/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Dobbins receives funding from the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>The legal minimum wage is vital for regulating low pay and preventing exploitation. But it is insufficient on its own to reduce poverty for working people.Tony Dobbins, Professor of HR Management & Employment Relations, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1042642018-10-03T11:49:13Z2018-10-03T11:49:13ZFair work must be about more than who keeps the tips<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239126/original/file-20181003-52691-1x1g5l9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Focusing on pennies and pounds isn't enough to help workers succeed.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/vintage-retro-glass-jar-hemp-rope-721260262?src=jI0elhVzfN6v73dITPBxrQ-1-0">nutcd32/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45701799">new law announced</a> by UK prime minister Theresa May will see restaurants in Britain being banned from unfairly taking tips from staff. Ensuring staff keep their tips is certainly a positive move to promote fairness. However, as tips are often used by employees to supplement their low pay, shouldn’t improving quality of work be of higher importance? </p>
<p>Since at least 2008, successive UK governments have focused primarily <a href="https://www.ippr.org/files/images/media/files/publication/2013/07/a_job_for_everyone_July2013_11002.pdf">on improving employment levels</a>. As a result, less focus has been placed on improving job quality. Across the UK, <a href="https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2018/05/Low-Pay-Britain-2018.pdf">an estimated 4.9m people</a> are now employed in low-paid work, earning less than two thirds of the median hourly wage. In Wales alone, <a href="https://gov.wales/statistics-and-research/business-register-employment-survey/?lang=en">around 459,000 workers</a> are employed in low-paying occupations – as defined by <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/661195/Low_Pay_Commission_2017_report.pdf">the Low Pay Commission</a>. </p>
<p>Many of these low-paid workers also find themselves without a credible route to progress into better paid and quality work. <a href="http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/default/files/jrf/migrated/files/employment-progression-skills-full.pdf">A substantive report</a> commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2014 showed that in low-paid sectors such as retail, catering, and care, movement into better paid and more secure work simply isn’t offered to many. This is reflected in the fact that from 2006 to 2016, 25% of low-paid workers were still undertaking low-paid work <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/652973/The_Great_Escape_-_Report.pdf">a decade later</a>. And in the food service industry, though there are opportunities for service staff to move up into managerial positions, research has found that promotion decisions are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-2338.2011.00656.x">often made arbitrarily</a>, without fair assessment of qualifications and skills.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Another pathway to improving workers’ prospects.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/business-occupation-finger-people-moving-step-183125153?src=NHD9NF1DbU3lQxWpKjb8rQ-1-20">Erik Kalibayev/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The rise of the gig economy and the decline of unionised workplaces has worsened this problem, and undermined many of the traditional career structures, such as <a href="https://www.niesr.ac.uk/blog/investment-adult-skills-decreasing-uk-%E2%80%93-here%E2%80%99s-why-we-should-be-worried">work-based learning</a>, that used to exist in low-paid sectors. The feeling of being trapped and deprived of credible opportunities – whether moving up with an existing employer or into better paid work elsewhere – is all too common. But things can’t change overnight, and the government needs to start pushing companies to help their staff.</p>
<h2>Skill building</h2>
<p>The most effective career progression plans give workers the training and skills they need to move up, while simultaneously developing the skilled workforce that employers need to boost growth. It is not simply about improving their ability in their current role, but about boosting their skills overall. </p>
<p>Take, for example, an <a href="http://www.whatworksgrowth.org/blog/an-exemplary-training-programme-will-it-work-here/">IT training scheme</a> in the Bronx, New York, which has boosted participants’ earnings by 27%. This programme focused on providing sector-specific occupational skills training, appropriate job placements and post-employment retention and advancement services to effectively provide participants with the new skills they needed to move up into better paid work.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.bitc.org.uk/resources-training/resources/impact-stories/good-work-all-how-pets-home-tackling-gender-pay-gap-and">a UK programme</a>, run in partnership with retailer Pets at Home, has ensured part-time staff can also progress in their careers, by simply offering training and managerial work experience on a part-time and flexible basis. This approach not only enabled progression, it also helped promote more <a href="https://timewise.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Moving_Up_In_Retail_Pilot.pdf">women in the workplace</a>. (Despite representing 65% of Pets at Home’s shop floor staff, many women struggled to balance progression with part-time working.) </p>
<p>Programmes like these rely on adult learning. But this is a sector which has <a href="https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/from-inadequate-to-outstanding_2017-making-the-UK-skills-system-world-class_tcm18-19933.pdf">long been neglected in the UK</a>, and lacked investment from both employers and government. In fact, the current policy approaches have stopped workers from being able to <a href="https://gov.wales/about/cabinet/cabinetstatements/2018/fairworkcommission/?lang=en">increase their skills</a> to help themselves progress.</p>
<p>For our soon to be published report, we have been looking specifically at the issue of promoting <a href="https://www.wcpp.org.uk/project/approaches-to-enabling-job-progression-in-key-foundational-sectors/">career progression in low-paid sectors</a>. We have found that providing career progression opportunities not only gets workers into better paid work and improves well-being, it also boosts economic productivity and growth. A clear benefit for workers, business and government. </p>
<p>Evidently, more must be done to create a persuasive, evidenced argument to get employers on board, and show them the mutual benefits that career progression initiatives can yield. Government policy to incentivise employers is crucial for this, and could complement other policies, such as the promotion and enforcement of a national living wage. New procurement clauses, for example, could force companies who wish to work with the public sector to commit to providing progression.</p>
<p>Improving the quality of work is a complex matter but it can be done. Ensuring a fair distribution of tips to service staff and promoting a fairer distribution of wages for workers more generally is no doubt part of the solution. But we need to look at workers’ careers, too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104264/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Webb is a Research Officer at the Wales Centre for Public Policy, which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Welsh Government and Cardiff University. </span></em></p>Tips help, but government policy should focus on progression and skills first.Jonathan Webb, Research Officer, Wales Centre for Public Policy, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1026822018-09-05T10:32:18Z2018-09-05T10:32:18ZWage Councils could address endemic pay inequality in the UK economy<p>The UK has an endemic <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/low-pay-and-progression-in-the-labour-market">low-pay</a> culture. A new report backed by business leaders and the Archbishop of Canterbury says Britain’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/05/uk-economic-model-archbishop-of-canterbury">economic model is “broken”</a> and produces widespread inequality. Around <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/blog/tuesday%E2%80%99s-spring-statement-opportunity-right-wrong-work-poverty">8m people</a> in poverty now live in working households. Many workers are trapped in low-skilled, precarious jobs, with poor wages and working conditions. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.research.mbs.ac.uk/ewerc/Portals/0/Documents/Comparative-Report-Reducing-Precarious-Work-v2.pdf">“Precarious work”</a> has expanded to include <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/zero-hour-contracts-13632">zero-hour</a> contract staff, agency and gig economy workers with uncertain hours, volatile earnings and job insecurity. But workers with permanent jobs also struggle to make ends meet as living costs bite. </p>
<p>The UK desperately needs a more robust system to lift standards and protect low earners and those who may feel marginalised and whose rights are virtually non-existent. This is where Wage Councils could come in.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1037251046723256320"}"></div></p>
<p>Despite the national minimum wage (for 16- to 24-year-olds) and national living wage (for over-25s) rates, many people in low paid sectors struggle with rising living costs. It has been <a href="https://www.livingwage.org.uk/news/news-living-wage-foundation-welcomes-pay-rise-uk%E2%80%99s-poorest-workers-urges-employers-go-further">estimated</a> that those earning the national living wage still need to work an additional six weeks a year to cover basic expenses. The government recently identified <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/minimum-wage-companies-pay-least-list-uk-government-a8433936.html">240 organisations</a> violating these rates including hairdressers, pubs, care homes and sports clubs. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.livingwage.org.uk/living-wage-foundation">The Living Wage Foundation </a> now encourages employers to pay workers a higher living wage of £8.75 an hour (or £10.20 in London). This living wage aims to give workers basic, but acceptable, living standards. Over 4,400 UK organisations pay it, but on a voluntary basis. <a href="https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/ER-04-2017-0083">Research shows living wage</a> regulation can uplift earnings, improve community mobilisation and support better corporate responsibility. </p>
<h2>What are Wage Councils?</h2>
<p>There is a case for Wage Councils to help address in-work poverty in low paid sectors (such as retail, hospitality, hairdressing, social and health care, childcare and cleaning). A Wage Council would be made up of industry (employer and union) and independent members. They would have statutory powers to monitor minimum/living wage rates, health and safety and other working conditions.</p>
<p>Wage Councils are not new. <a href="http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06897/SN06897.pdf">Trade Boards</a> were established under the Trade Boards Act 1909, to set minimum wages for sweated trades like tailoring, where workers worked long hours for little pay. Trade Boards became known as Wage Councils under the <a href="http://shura.shu.ac.uk/18742/1/RHargreaves_2017_LLMR_DevelopmentsofMinimum.pdf">Wages Councils Act 1945</a> and their powers expanded to regulate pay, hours and holidays for various sectors. </p>
<p>The act was repealed by Margaret Thatcher’s <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1986/48/pdfs/ukpga_19860048_en.pdf">Wages Act 1986</a>, which decreased Wage Council power and scope. Thatcher promoted pay flexibility, profit-related pay and decentralised pay bargaining. John Major’s <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1993/19/contents">Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Act 1993</a> then abolished most of the surviving Wage Councils. </p>
<p>Labour recently pledged to reinstate the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/22/labour-promises-reinstate-agricultural-wages-board">Agricultural Wages Board</a> in England to set minimum pay levels and other working conditions for farmers – as <a href="https://beta.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2018-06/agricultural-wages-guidance.pdf">still exist</a> in Wales, Scotland and <a href="https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/articles/awb-agricultural-rates-pay-orders-and-reports">Northern Ireland</a>. These boards comprise independent members, and employee (union) and employer (farmer) representatives. They set minimum wages and sick pay/holiday entitlements and offer a template for Wage Councils for other lower paid sectors. </p>
<h2>A voice for the disenfranchised</h2>
<p>Wage Councils are democratic and efficient bodies. They could yield societal benefits by reducing in-work poverty and providing a voice for disenfranchised groups. They can expose the widening worker-executive pay discrepancies more efficiently than <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uks-biggest-firms-will-have-to-justify-pay-gap-between-bosses-and-their-workers">recent legislation</a> by forcing CEOs in large companies to justify their salaries. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234994/original/file-20180905-45158-32nofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234994/original/file-20180905-45158-32nofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234994/original/file-20180905-45158-32nofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234994/original/file-20180905-45158-32nofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234994/original/file-20180905-45158-32nofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234994/original/file-20180905-45158-32nofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234994/original/file-20180905-45158-32nofs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workers in the gig economy would benefit from having representatives on a Wage Council.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bristol-uk-march-6-2015-deliveroo-790184341?src=eW5EJ1TndXFfWskSj9Jdhg-1-3">Shutterstock/1000words</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If they were introduced, it is likely that worker productivity would increase in line with the <a href="http://blog.press.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/camerer-chapter-16.pdf">“fair wage effort hypothesis”</a> which explains that if a pay discrepancy exists which workers perceive as unfair, then workers may simply withdraw their effort. Research by the employers’ body, the CIPD, found that <a href="https://www.cipd.co.uk/about/media/press/110117financialwellbeing">one-in-four</a> employees perform poorly at work because of financial concerns. This can lead to less cooperation among workers, low productivity, and bad employee behaviour in response to a lack of empowerment and resources to contest inequality. </p>
<p>Wage Councils could support the goals of broader <a href="http://www.research.mbs.ac.uk/ewerc/Portals/0/Documents/human-development-report.pdf">socioeconomic</a> human development in line with the <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/sdg-2030/lang--ja/index.htm">International Labour Organisation’s objective</a> to “promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”. </p>
<p>Income inequality can hamper durable economic growth and may fuel a financial crisis as <a href="https://blogs.imf.org/2017/02/22/the-imfs-work-on-inequality-bridging-research-and-reality/">low-medium</a> income households engage in excessive borrowing. <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2015/09/28/04/53/soint061412a">Economists</a> have argued that income inequality was a fundamental driver of the financial crash. </p>
<p>These councils may even help address the UK’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/29/the-guardian-view-on-the-productivity-puzzle-blame-low-pay">dilemma</a> over how to raise productivity. They would support workforce engagement by providing a voice to marginalised workers on the fringe of the labour market in lower paid sectors.</p>
<p>They may also reduce tax subsidies for in-work benefits like tax credits. Citizens UK research estimated that taxpayers are subsidising the low-pay culture in big businesses to the tune of <a href="http://www.citizensuk.org/taxpayer">£11 billion</a> a year. </p>
<p>Wage Councils could help deliver a fairer deal for the low paid but they need a proper system of enforcement which would enable them to take meaningful action against employers who violate the conditions they set down. They must also be combined with other sustainable economy initiatives, such as creating more <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/07/why-a-jobs-guarantee-would-benefit-us-all">good quality</a> and secure jobs. </p>
<p>It is now time government and policy makers began looking at how to use the Agricultural Wages Board as a template for a national Wage Councils policy. These councils would benefit workers, employers and society and help repair the UK’s “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/05/uk-economic-model-archbishop-of-canterbury">broken</a>” economic model.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102682/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The UK desperately needs a more robust system to lift standards in low paid sectors and protect workers.Emma Sara Hughes, Lecturer in HRM, University of LiverpoolTony Dundon, Professor of HRM & Employment Relations, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/996172018-07-11T11:13:01Z2018-07-11T11:13:01ZTwo tiny but mighty new trade unions offer UK a better way to ‘take back control’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227133/original/file-20180711-27021-14h4usm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/eorphotography/8076759765/in/album-72157631744579023/">Eyes On Rights / flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people in the UK interpret “take back control” as “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321586299_Take_Back_Control_of_Our_Borders_The_Role_of_Arguments_about_Controlling_Immigration_in_the_Brexit_Debate">close the borders</a>”. But there are other ways for people to restore their communities and standard of living without trying to keep out the immigrants. Two small unions, the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) and United Voices of the World (UVW), show us how.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://iwgb.org.uk/about/">IWGB</a>, formed in 2012, and the <a href="https://www.uvwunion.org.uk/about/">UVW</a>, formed in 2014, organise the most vulnerable of London’s immigrant workers: low paid, outsourced, often employed as so-called “independent contractors”. They include cleaners, carers, couriers, bar staff and security guards. These men and women, working alongside their British-born colleagues, are the very people supposedly <a href="https://theconversation.com/rivers-and-swarms-how-metaphor-fuels-anti-immigrant-feeling-33556">swamping the country</a> and driving down wages. </p>
<p>Yet through these two unions they have taken on powerful employers, from global giants like Uber and Deliveroo to outsourcing companies at the Royal Opera House, the London School of Economics, and other cultural meccas. And they have often won. I spoke to the leaders of IWGB and UVW to and found out how – through self-reliance, community building and collective action – they have taken back control.</p>
<h2>Self reliance</h2>
<p>The prevailing emotion among low-paid workers is fear: fear of management and fear of getting the sack. They have little experience with unions, and no control over their jobs. </p>
<p>IWGB and UVW organisers must first convince workers that they have the power to act and that they can cause change. They try to avoid what the UVW’s general secretary, Petros Elia, calls a “doctor-patient relationship”, where workers wait for a quick consult with the organiser, who then cures their ills.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227137/original/file-20180711-27018-19lckoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227137/original/file-20180711-27018-19lckoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227137/original/file-20180711-27018-19lckoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227137/original/file-20180711-27018-19lckoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227137/original/file-20180711-27018-19lckoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227137/original/file-20180711-27018-19lckoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227137/original/file-20180711-27018-19lckoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">UVW members making themselves heard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/uvwunion/photos/a.786502864751288.1073741832.703269199741322/1747899611944937/?type=3&theater">UVW</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They preach instead the gospel of self-reliance, or at least a version of it. The IWGB’s Ecuadorian-born president, Henry Chango Lopez, puts it simply: “We let the workers run their own affairs.” New members compile their own demands and plan their own campaign, while organisers provide guidance and head office provides legal support. Workers are encouraged to trust their own abilities, and take control of their own campaigns. </p>
<h2>Strength in numbers</h2>
<p>But they do not do this alone. The IWGB and UVW place more stress on strikes and other kinds of collective action than most other unions. This is partly because the employers they encounter – outsourcing companies, “platforms” such as Uber and Deliveroo, and other hirers of low-cost labour – are even less likely than others to grant demands such as the London living wage without a fight.</p>
<p>Their campaigns are noisier and more raucous than the average picket line. Strikes by IWGB cleaners at the University of London, for example, were set to <a href="http://theprisma.co.uk/2013/03/03/why-the-cleaners-bang-on-drums/">banging drums</a>. UVW cleaners at 100 Wood St, home to investment banks Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, staged loud protests, organised flash mobs and occupied buildings for 61 days during the <a href="https://www.uvwunion.org.uk/100-wood-street/">longest strike</a> in the history of the City of London. At these times, Chango Lopez says, “invisible workers become visible” – not to mention audible. </p>
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<p>Isolated individuals change nothing – but even the most vulnerable people, some of whom speak few words of English, can change a great deal if they come together. Chango Lopez remembers how cleaners at the University of London – outsourced, marginalised and on minimum wage – used to suffer harassment and feared losing their jobs and being unable to pay their bills. </p>
<p>After eight years of sustained protests, strikes and campaigns they have transformed their situation, won the London living wage and will soon be brought back <a href="https://iwgb.org.uk/2018/05/24/iwgb-campaign-wins-major-concession-for-outsourced-workers-at-university-of-london/">in-house</a>. British workers of all kinds should heed that lesson, as strikes fall to their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/may/30/strikes-in-uk-fall-to-lowest-level-since-records-began-in-1893">lowest point</a> in more than 100 years.</p>
<h2>Building community</h2>
<p>These strikes and campaigns all rest on the wider community of members. The IWGB and UVW both aim, as Elia puts it, “to build as many links of solidarity as possible between members, and between workplaces”. When one branch decides to take action, head office encourages the other branches to lend their support by joining their protest and writing letters and emails to the employer in question. Head office becomes the hub of a community in which each branch knows that the rest have their back. </p>
<p>Activists from both unions try to make their office a place where first-time visitors come back twice. They encourage new recruits to meet members seasoned by strikes and campaigns who can pass on their experience and the conviction that fighting and winning is possible. Formal meetings double as social events, where everyone can relax and get to know each other over a drink and to the sound of music. Activists at the UVW offices rate themselves as highly on the dancefloor as on the picket line.</p>
<p>They have built these communities despite the many linguistic and cultural cleavages among their membership. Members come from all over the world – including Africa, the Caribbean, South Asia and the UK. The majority of UVW members – and a large minority of IWGB members – hail from Latin America. Spanish is spoken more often than English at the UVW head office, and their long, sprawling meetings take place in Spanish and Portuguese as well as English. Both unions run English language classes for non-native speakers, so they can work more closely with their colleagues and better understand what employers tell them. </p>
<p>Some people fret that immigrants won’t assimilate. But they can rest assured that the UVW and IWGB do more to integrate their foreign-born members than the government, which has <a href="http://www.refugee-action.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Safe-but-Alone-final.pdf">slashed funds</a> for English teaching for new migrants. And they have a thing or two to learn from this varied collection of British and foreign-born workers, who have overcome their vulnerabilities to better their pay and working conditions.</p>
<p>Forget closing the borders, or maintaining the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/hostile-environment-immigration-policy-has-made-britain-a-precarious-place-to-call-home-95546">hostile environment</a>” against migrants. Working people shouldn’t rely on Brexit – or the European Union – to protect their jobs, communities and lives. The self-reliance, collective action and community spirit practised by the Independent Workers of Great Britain and United Voices of the World are a much better way to take back control.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99617/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Parfitt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>And it doesn’t involve immigrant bashing. Quite the opposite.Steven Parfitt, University Teacher in History, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/914022018-03-22T19:08:33Z2018-03-22T19:08:33ZLow-paid ‘women’s work’: why early childhood educators are walking out<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207223/original/file-20180221-132650-q1qv95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What might be achieved from the proposed walkout is difficult to predict.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s early childhood educators, including those working in community and private childcare centres, will walk off the job on March 27 to demand <a href="http://www.unitedvoice.org.au/big_walk_off_announcement">better pay</a>. Some centres will be closed for the whole day and parents will be asked to keep their children at home.</p>
<p>This scale of action will no doubt come at a cost to the economy and cause substantial inconvenience to thousands of families. It’s part of a long-running equal pay campaign. </p>
<p>Early childhood educators are among the lowest-paid Australians, with many taking on a second job for a supplementary income. Many <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-in-five-early-childhood-educators-plan-to-leave-the-profession-61279">leave the sector</a> altogether – with low pay identified as the central reason for doing so. This means the sector <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/101622/1/Brief_report_ECEC_Workforce_Development_Policy_Workshop_final.pdf">loses skilled workers</a> at a time when its workforce should be growing in size.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/one-in-five-early-childhood-educators-plan-to-leave-the-profession-61279">One in five early childhood educators plan to leave the profession</a>
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<p>Many would agree current wage levels don’t reflect the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/education/starting-strong-iv-9789264233515-en.htm">importance of caring for and educating children</a>. Positive outcomes for children’s development and emotional security have significant implications for the welfare of families and future economic prosperity. </p>
<h2>Low pay</h2>
<p>Reasons for low pay in the early childhood sector include a high proportion of female workers, the dependency of educators on <a href="https://www.fairwork.gov.au/how-we-will-help/templates-and-guides/fact-sheets/minimum-workplace-entitlements/modern-awards#what-is-a-modern-award">modern awards</a> that set minimum standards of pay and conditions, and various funding models that operate in the sector.</p>
<p>Certificate III qualified educators <a href="http://awardviewer.fwo.gov.au/award/show/MA000120#P279_28075">receive A$809 per week before tax</a>, which is around half the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6302.0">average weekly earnings for all occupations</a>. There is little difference between educator pay rates under the Children’s Services Award, which covers the majority of workers, and the Australian national minimum wage of <a href="https://www.fairwork.gov.au/how-we-will-help/templates-and-guides/fact-sheets/minimum-workplace-entitlements/minimum-wages">$18.29 per hour before tax</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207224/original/file-20180221-132642-7ebo8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207224/original/file-20180221-132642-7ebo8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207224/original/file-20180221-132642-7ebo8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207224/original/file-20180221-132642-7ebo8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207224/original/file-20180221-132642-7ebo8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207224/original/file-20180221-132642-7ebo8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207224/original/file-20180221-132642-7ebo8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In highly feminised, caring occupations, there is a tendency to preference the needs of children and families above employees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Some educators leave for better paid and less challenging work elsewhere, often without the requirement for qualifications. For example, educators can earn more money doing night retail work than in the <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/childcare/submissions/initial/submission-counter/sub121-childcare.pdf">work they are qualified to undertake</a>. Low wages also contribute to early childhood work being viewed not as a long-term career path, but a temporary employment solution.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/101622/1/Brief_report_ECEC_Workforce_Development_Policy_Workshop_final.pdf">own study</a> of 85 educators in nine <a href="https://www.mychild.gov.au/childcare-information/options">long daycare centres</a> (places where children can be cared for throughout the full day) in Queensland showed educators got significant satisfaction from their work with children. But their continued employment in the sector relied on supplementary income to cover life’s necessities. </p>
<p>For some, their wages were supplemented by a partner who earned a higher income. Others received financial assistance from their parents or worked a second job. Those without additional financial support struggled and were more likely to consider leaving the sector.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/early-childhood-educators-rely-on-families-to-prop-up-low-income-research-finds-69283">Early childhood educators rely on families to prop up low income, research finds</a>
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<h2>Women’s work</h2>
<p>Like many other countries, Australia’s early childhood workforce is <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/childcare/submissions/initial/submission-counter/sub121-childcare.pdf">female dominated</a>, consisting of more than 90% women. </p>
<p>Working with young children is often perceived as similar to mothering and something instinctive and enjoyable to women. This view is <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-12/childcare-workers-open-letter-to-david-leyonhjelm/8178296">perpetuated by government</a>, the broader community, and, sometimes, educators themselves.</p>
<p>There is a tendency to preference the needs of children and families above childcare employees. This has been seen in responses to calls for increased wages, where public and political concern has focused on the consequent <a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/38447659/childcare-fees-could-rise-if-educators-succeed-in-pay-claim/">increased cost to parents</a> using early childhood services.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207225/original/file-20180221-132654-56pp05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207225/original/file-20180221-132654-56pp05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207225/original/file-20180221-132654-56pp05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207225/original/file-20180221-132654-56pp05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207225/original/file-20180221-132654-56pp05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207225/original/file-20180221-132654-56pp05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207225/original/file-20180221-132654-56pp05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Although educator wages are low, they are by far the most significant component of the budget of any early childhood service provider.</span>
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<h2>Industrial issues</h2>
<p>More than 70% of early <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/education-workforce-early-childhood/report/early-childhood-report.pdf">childhood educators are award dependent</a>, compared to only 20% of the broader Australian workforce. This means most educators are paid close to the minimum wage, with low variability in pay. </p>
<p>Although some employers attempt to pay more, it’s rare for wages to exceed the award by more than 10%.</p>
<p>The ability for educators to increase their earnings is further reduced by a relatively flat career structure. Length of service is not reflected in salary. Also, opportunities for collective bargaining are restricted by a fragmented sector characterised by numerous single operators with a small number of employees.</p>
<p>Degree-qualified early childhood teachers are particularly disadvantaged. In most states and territories, preschool teachers’ pay is <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/childcare/report/childcare-volume2.pdf">comparable to that of school teachers</a>, but the same teacher leading a preschool program in a long daycare centre could be paid A$7-8 less per hour. This reflects a difference of more than A$13,000 per year.</p>
<h2>Funding models</h2>
<p>Although educator wages are low, they represent around 70% of operating costs for providers. The ability to pay educators more depends on the budget of a given service.</p>
<p>Early childhood services in Australia gain income through parent fees and government funding. Different financial models are used for different service types. </p>
<p>Standalone preschools receive “<a href="https://qed.qld.gov.au/earlychildhood/service/Documents/pdf/queensland-kindergarten-funding-2017.pdf">supply-side funding</a>”, where money flows to the service mainly from government and is linked to operational costs such as the wages of qualified teachers and educators.</p>
<p>In contrast, long daycare services are subject to “demand-side funding”. In this model, there is no <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2018/child-care-education-and-training/early-childhood-education-and-care/rogs-2018-partb-chapter3.pdf">operational subsidy</a> for providers. Instead, funding is linked to parent fees and designed to <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/child-care-subsidy-0">offset the cost of care for individual families</a>. </p>
<p>These funding systems mean any wage increase in a preschool is largely funded by government, with reduced impact on parent fees. But in long day care, wage increases are more likely to require increased parent fees.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207230/original/file-20180221-132680-legrb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207230/original/file-20180221-132680-legrb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207230/original/file-20180221-132680-legrb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207230/original/file-20180221-132680-legrb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207230/original/file-20180221-132680-legrb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207230/original/file-20180221-132680-legrb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207230/original/file-20180221-132680-legrb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Parent fees and government funding are the main income for early childhood services.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>Where to next for the early childhood sector?</h2>
<p>The current Australian government maintains that wages are a <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/early_years_workforce_strategy_0_0_0.pdf">matter for employers and employees</a>. Unions and some employers argue there should be greater public investment in education and care to enable an urgent increase to wages. </p>
<p>Based on <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/101622/">our research</a>, and an understanding of the Australian education and care sector, improving wages is a shared responsibility. Employers clearly have a significant responsibility toward their employees and some could do better. There is also a need for greater investment from government. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-are-we-doing-on-early-childhood-education-and-care-good-but-theres-more-to-do-89275">How are we doing on early childhood education and care? Good, but there's more to do</a>
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<p>There are lessons to be learnt from national and international examples. In Queensland, the <a href="https://qed.qld.gov.au/earlychildhood/service/Documents/pdf/queensland-kindergarten-funding-2017.pdf">Kindergarten Funding Scheme</a> offers a per-child subsidy to support the delivery of a quality preschool education program delivered by a qualified teacher in long day care. </p>
<p>Canada has <a href="https://news.ontario.ca/edu/en/2016/01/2016-wage-enhancement-for-early-childhood-educators.html">recently introduced</a> an early childhood wage enhancement program. In New Zealand, <a href="http://www.education.govt.nz/early-childhood/running-an-ece-service/employing-ece-staff/attestation/">funding incentives</a> have been rolled out for early childhood services with highly qualified educators.</p>
<p>What might be achieved from the proposed walkout is difficult to predict. At the very least, the action is likely to build awareness of longstanding challenges in early childhood education. It might also secure broader community support for wages and conditions that reflect the importance and complexity of early education work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91402/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Irvine is a member of Early Childhood Australia and has received grant funding from the Australian Research Council and Queensland Department of Education.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Thorpe has received funding from The Australian Research Council and the Queensland Department of Education to investigate the early years workforce</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paula McDonald receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Research shows early childhood educators are among the lowest-paid Australians, with some finding better pay in other fields such as night-time retail work.Susan Irvine, Associate Professor, School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education, QUT, Queensland University of TechnologyKaren Thorpe, Professor, Research Group leader Development education and Care, The University of QueenslandPaula McDonald, Professor of Work and Organisation, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/779712017-05-18T15:28:18Z2017-05-18T15:28:18ZLabour and the Conservatives offer two different routes to a ‘living’ wage<p>A competition among political parties to promise a more attractive minimum or “living” wage is new to British elections. The National Minimum Wage (NMW) is now nearly 20 years old, but Labour in power was always cautious about its level. The Conservatives, meanwhile, initially opposed it. </p>
<p>But a burgeoning living wage movement and a perceived “living standards crisis” help explain a new bidding war. In the 2015 election, Labour promised to raise the NMW to <a href="http://www.labour.org.uk/page/-/BritainCanBeBetter-TheLabourPartyManifesto2015.pdf">£8 an hour</a> by 2020; trumped by the Conservatives’ £9 in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/summer-budget-2015-key-announcements">the subsequent budget</a>, and now Labour’s £10 <a href="http://www.labour.org.uk/page/-/Images/manifesto-2017/Labour%20Manifesto%202017.pdf">manifesto pledge</a>. </p>
<p>Since the minimum wage was £6.50 just two years ago, all these promises, if followed through, will have a substantial impact in changing Britain’s low pay culture. But what is the difference between the two main party promises now on offer? And as policies, are they sustainable or reckless?</p>
<p>The most obvious difference in the manifesto pledges is that Labour promises £10 by 2020 (a 33% increase from 2017) and <a href="https://www.conservatives.com/manifesto">the Conservatives</a> promise 60% of median pay which is <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/604442/A_rising_floor_-_the_latest_evidence_on_the_National_Living_Wage_and_youth_rates_of_the_minimum_wage.pdf">projected</a> to be £8.75 by 2020. This is a 17% increase, and less than the £9 pledged in 2015, because median pay is forecast to grow more slowly than previously expected. </p>
<p>But two crucial factors beyond the crude rate promised will influence how the “living wage” debate plays out in the next few years: the basis for setting and raising it, and the ages of workers to whom it applies.</p>
<h2>How it’s set</h2>
<p>In setting the rate, the Conservatives have opted to peg the National Living Wage (NLW – a rebranded NMW for over-25s) to average pay. On the one hand, this belies its branding as a “living” wage. Unlike the voluntary, accredited <a href="https://www.livingwage.org.uk/">Living Wage</a> which is derived from <a href="http://www.minimumincomestandard.org/">our research</a> at Loughborough University and based on what people actually need for a minimum living standard, the Conservatives’ NLW has no reference to living costs. </p>
<p>But the commitment to raise the minimum from <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/571631/LPC_spring_report_2016.pdf">52% to 60% of median pay</a> – and to keep it there – does mark a bold departure in sharing the fruits of future growth. Indeed, pegging incomes (such as pensions or benefits) to rising earnings has often been a more favourable formula than pegging them to living costs, since earnings rose steadily in real terms.</p>
<p>However, times have changed. In the past few years, living costs have sometimes risen faster than earnings, making an earnings link less beneficial than it once was. Moreover, the “real” living wage espoused by Labour can also rise if the government cuts the help it gives working families, for example through tax credits. This is what George Osborne did when announcing the Conservative Party’s NLW in its 2015 budget, which would have caused families <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/will-2015-summer-budget-improve-living-standards-2020#jl_downloads_0">a net loss</a>. So a real living wage requires employers to make good on any cuts in state support.</p>
<p>But what will be the effect of much higher minimum wages on employment? In my <a href="http://agendapub.com/index.php/books/political-economy?view=title&id=18">new book</a> with Laura Valadez on the living wage, I show that evidence from the UK and US overwhelmingly contradicts the economic prediction that higher minimum wages automatically mean fewer jobs. Yet we also point out that both countries have been highly cautious in setting the minimum wage, and are about to become much less so – New York and California are <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/04/01/472716122/california-new-york-to-raise-minimum-wages-to-15-an-hour">planning phased increases to US$15</a>, over twice the federal minimum. In the UK, a statutory minimum of £9 or £10 will have a vastly different impact on labour markets from the voluntary adoption of a real living wage by the 3,000 employers who have so far felt able to do so. </p>
<h2>Whether it’s tied to age</h2>
<p>The most radical aspect of the Labour version, and potentially the most risky in terms of employment, is that it would apply from age 18, unlike the Conservatives’ from age 25. Someone who is 20, who in 2017 can be paid £5.60 per hour, would be guaranteed £10 three years later – if they were still being offered jobs. </p>
<p>Our book shows how in Portugal, ending minimum wage youth rates was followed by a substantial “displacement” effect, with fewer jobs going to less experienced workers. This effect is also <a href="http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2014/08/Beyond_the_Bottom_Line_-_FINAL.pdf">predicted</a> in the UK. On the other hand, under Conservative plans, a growing gap between the minimum for 24- and 25-year-olds could damage job prospects for the latter, as employers in casual industries such as restaurants and hospitality dump low-paid workers on their 25th birthdays. (<a href="http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2016/07/NLW-first-100-days.pdf">Early evidence</a> shows some employers already favouring younger workers.)</p>
<p>In adopting greater ambitions for tackling low pay in Britain, therefore, politicians should not throw all their former caution to the winds, but look carefully at how their policies are affecting the labour market as they unfold. </p>
<p>Producing a formula that can contribute to higher living standards without destroying people’s job prospects requires a delicate balance. After the election, the simplicity of the manifesto promise will have to be followed by careful, evidence-based delivery if a living wage is to be sustainable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77971/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald Hirsch is a member of the Labour Party.</span></em></p>Crucially, they differ in how they are calculated and the ages of workers that they apply to.Donald Hirsch, Professor of Social Policy, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/743472017-03-30T14:33:26Z2017-03-30T14:33:26ZHow football’s richest clubs fail to pay staff a real living wage<p>English football’s top flight, the Premier League, dominates the <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/sports-business-group/articles/deloitte-football-money-league.html">sporting world’s league tables</a> for revenue. Star players, managers and executives command <a href="http://sillyseason.com/list/salaries/premier-league-wages-per-team-69064/">lucrative wages</a>. Thanks to the biggest TV deal in world football, the 20 Premier League clubs share £10.4 billion between them.</p>
<p>But this wealth bonanza is not being distributed fairly within clubs. Wages are dramatically lower for staff at the opposite end of the Premier League labour market to players and executives. Many encounter <a href="http://www.citizensuk.org/what_about_a_transfer_window_for_those_in_working_poverty">in-work poverty</a>. </p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/31/everton-to-pay-staff-living-wage">Everton and Chelsea</a> are the only two Premiership clubs fully accredited with the <a href="http://www.livingwage.org.uk/">Living Wage Foundation</a> to pay all lower-paid directly employed staff, as well as external contractors and agency staff, a real living wage. This is a (voluntary) wage that is higher than the legally required national living wage. It is calculated based on what employees and their families need to live, reflecting real rises in living costs. In London it’s £9.75 an hour, elsewhere it’s £8.45. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163311/original/image-20170330-4555-1rp2mgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163311/original/image-20170330-4555-1rp2mgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163311/original/image-20170330-4555-1rp2mgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163311/original/image-20170330-4555-1rp2mgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163311/original/image-20170330-4555-1rp2mgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163311/original/image-20170330-4555-1rp2mgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163311/original/image-20170330-4555-1rp2mgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of two Premier League clubs to pay the real living wage to all staff.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">asurobson / Shutterstock.com</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Of 92 clubs in England and Scotland’s football leagues, only three others – Luton Town, Derby County and Hearts – are also accredited with the Living Wage Foundation. And many club staff – cleaners, caterers, stewards and other match-day roles – are employed indirectly by agencies or contractors and not paid the real living wage.</p>
<p>In 2015, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/living-wage-campaign-seven-premier-league-clubs-refuse-to-comment-on-employees-pay-a6706951.html">The Independent</a> newspaper asked 20 Premier League clubs simple questions: Does your club pay the living wage to full-time staff? Does it pay, or is it committed to paying the living wage to part-time and contracted staff? Seven clubs failed to reply or said “no comment”.</p>
<h2>Good business, good society?</h2>
<p>Many football clubs are embedded in urban communities, some classified as among the most impoverished places in Western Europe. What does it say about ethics and employment practices, especially of wealthier Premier League clubs, when many match-day staff don’t receive a proper living wage?</p>
<p>Aside from moral factors relating to fairer distribution of wealth as the glue underpinning <a href="https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/resources/the-spirit-level">more equal societies</a>, there is also a good business case for companies to pay a real living wage. According to the Living Wage Foundation, organisations among the 2,900 accredited as paying the voluntary living wage report <a href="http://www.livingwage.org.uk/why-pay-living-wage%20">significant improvements</a> in quality of work, lower staff absence and turnover – and an improved corporate reputation as a result.</p>
<p>Everton FC, located in an area of Liverpool with high social deprivation, has announced that becoming an accredited Living Wage Foundation employer will significantly increase wages for contractors and casual, match-day staff. Denise Barrett-Baxendale, the club’s deputy chief executive, <a href="http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/everton-pay-staff-contractors-living-12101127">has said</a>: “Supporting the accredited living wage is quite simply the right thing to do; it improves our employees’ quality of life but also benefits our business and society as a whole.” Everton’s neighbours Liverpool FC has yet to make a similar commitment. </p>
<p>Independent <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0263774X15614677">academic research</a> suggests that while workers benefit from the real living wage, it’s not an automatic fix. Higher hourly pay does not necessarily translate into a better standard of living if working hours are too low. The problem is that there are large concentrations of part-time living wage jobs with few hours and so small income increases are offset by rising costs of living. </p>
<h2>Ending foul pay</h2>
<p>There has recently been growing mobilisation among the public, civil society, supporters groups and some politicians to pressure football clubs to pay the real living wage. The GMB, a big general workers union, launched the <a href="http://www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/play-to-end-foul-pay">GMB End Foul Pay campaign</a>. London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, recently urged every London Premier League club to pay all staff the <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/mayor/sadiq-khan-demands-londons-top-football-clubs-pay-living-wage-a3442441.html">London living wage</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163316/original/image-20170330-4592-1u4kc2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163316/original/image-20170330-4592-1u4kc2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163316/original/image-20170330-4592-1u4kc2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163316/original/image-20170330-4592-1u4kc2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163316/original/image-20170330-4592-1u4kc2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163316/original/image-20170330-4592-1u4kc2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163316/original/image-20170330-4592-1u4kc2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frustrated with foul pay.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lorna Roberts / Shutterstock.com</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>In Manchester, living wage campaigners have targeted the city’s two big clubs Manchester City and Manchester United. While progress has been reported at Manchester City, Manchester United has yet to commit to extending the living wage to its directly employed part-time match-day staff. By contrast, FC United of Manchester, the breakaway non-league club formed by Manchester United fans disenchanted with the Glazers’ ownership, pays the real living wage to all staff, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/living-wage-campaign-manchester-clubs-urged-to-pay-employees-fairly-a6705096.html">setting an example to the much richer football giant</a>. Manchester United presently ranks as the “<a href="http://www.cityam.com/257333/manchester-united-replace-real-madrid-richest-club-world">richest club in the world</a>”, having achieved record-breaking revenues of £515.3m in 2015-16. </p>
<p>But despite these grassroots campaigns and political exhortations, few football clubs are taking concrete measures to improve the wages and working conditions of lower-paid staff. It appears that leaving pay determination to the prerogative of club owners and executives is not working. Stronger regulation and political intervention may have to be contemplated – such as raising the legal national living wage and giving better legal rights and protections to indirectly employed staff on precarious contracts. </p>
<p>Such issues clearly go beyond football clubs in an economy that still hasn’t recovered <a href="https://mainlymacro.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/when-is-economic-recovery-not-recovery.html">from the 2008 financial crisis</a>. The state of the UK labour market is currently being considered by the government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/taylor-review-on-modern-employment-practices-launches">review of modern employment practices</a>, but we can expect little to change when the economic model remains fundamentally the same. </p>
<p>The misguided political ideology of self-regulating market forces has created stark inequalities as wealth continues to trickle up <a href="https://theconversation.com/fighting-inequality-and-poverty-requires-a-more-humane-view-of-economics-71600">disproportionately to the top 1%</a> and countervailing institutions, particularly trade unions, have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-relevant-are-the-tuc-and-unions-today-65183">emasculated</a>. Low pay in football clubs and elsewhere reflects this broader systemic context of contemporary capitalism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74347/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The wealth bonanza enjoyed by top flight football clubs does not trickle down to many of their employees.Tony Dobbins, Professor of Employment Studies, Bangor UniversityPeter Prowse, Professor of Human Resource Management and Employment Relations, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/709502017-01-09T15:36:19Z2017-01-09T15:36:19ZWhy British Airways cabin crew are striking<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152087/original/image-20170109-23464-1vkuuzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ondrej Zabransky / Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>British Airways cabin crew are <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/british-airways-strikes-almost-50-heathrow-flights-expected-to-be-cancelled-in-cabin-crew-walkout-a3435131.html">staging a 48-hour strike from January 10</a>, in a dispute over cabin crew pay. The strike has been called by the airline’s “mixed fleet” staff. This is a separate class of crew, which joined after 2010 and comprise 15% of BA’s total cabin crew. </p>
<p>There had originally been plans for a strike on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. These were called off following an improved pay offer from BA, but the crew members have since voted to reject it. Here, we look at the reasons behind the strike and the extent to which it is justified.</p>
<h2>Why does BA have ‘mixed fleet’ crew?</h2>
<p>Competition from budget airlines has led to cost-cutting across the board for airlines. The market share of low-fare airlines like Ryanair and easyJet within Europe <a href="http://www.oag.com/blog/low-cost-every-little-helps">is over 35%</a>. </p>
<p>To compete, BA created the new mixed fleet category of cabin crew hired on inferior terms and conditions to their colleagues within BA’s other two crews, Eurofleet (who service short-haul flights within Europe) and Worldwide (who service everywhere else). </p>
<p>The irony is that BA played an important role in the legitimising of budget airlines and the highly-competitive air travel market that exists today. In response to the competitive challenge posed by the early low fares’ airlines, many European legacy airlines (those operating prior to the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=DAF/COMP(2014)22&docLanguage=En">liberalisation of the industry</a> that began in the late 1980s) created their own low-cost subsidiaries. These include the short-lived Buzz by KLM and the more durable Germanwings (Lufthansa). </p>
<p>British Airways also adopted this approach and set up its highly successful subsidiary, Go. As well as legitimising low cost travel, it took many passengers away from BA’s main services. Go was subsequently sold to its management, backed by the investment group 3i, for £111m in 2001, who then sold it to the budget airline easyJet the following year for more than £350m. </p>
<h2>What are the problems?</h2>
<p>Despite performing the same job, BA’s mixed fleet earn far less than their colleagues on legacy crews. For example, in 2015 their basic starting salary was £12,000 (with an additional £3 an hour when flying). This is compared to an average expenditure per head of all cabin crew of <a href="https://www.caa.co.uk/uploadedFiles/CAA/Content/Standard_Content/Data_and_analysis/Datasets/Airline_data/Airline_data_2015_00/Table_1_14_Airline_Personnel_Cost_UK_and_Overseas_2015.pdf">£37,200</a>. Indeed, when industrial action was last threatened by BA cabin crew in 2014, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jun/22/british-airways-strike-action-threat-pay-claim-ba">unions at the time claimed</a> that mixed fleet staff were reliant on working tax credits (state benefits) to supplement their income. So, in effect, the government was subsidising BA’s operations. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.etf-europe.org/files/extranet/-75/44106/LFA%20final%20report%20221014.pdf">survey</a> of European cabin crew we carried out on behalf of the European Transport Workers’ Federation in 2014 revealed the extent of disaffection among BA’s mixed fleet crew at the time. Fewer than 10% of respondents reported that their pay and benefits were adequate to support their current lifestyle and none felt their remuneration was adequate to support future life plans. One study participant commented:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are commonly known as ‘cheap fleet’ throughout the company for our low costs and how much profit we make for the company. Another recent motto was ‘mixed fleet – to fly, to starve’ (a pun on the BA motto ‘To Fly to Serve’). How they treat us is appalling and it should change. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Flexible working compounds the issue. Rosters are subject to frequent changes at short notice and staff are advised to check their roster on days off and holidays. Members of mixed fleet told us they looked forward to unpaid leave as it gave them some control over their working time.</p>
<p>It seems that little has changed in the intervening two years. In 2016, British Airways’ parent company, IAG, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35662763">reported</a> operating profits of £1.4 billion. Meanwhile the mixed fleet cabin crew, who act as the face of the company, delivering the customer service quality on which the airline trades, struggle to make ends meet. It is disingenuous, then, that the airline’s response to the threat of industrial action was to call it an “unjustified” attack on customers.</p>
<p>BA has always and continues to trade on customer service. It is doing so very successfully, as its balance sheet of recent years clearly demonstrates. Mixed fleet are an integral part of the cabin crew workforce whose efforts in delivering high levels of customer service in no small way contribute to the airline’s success. This is something critics of their industrial action might think about when assessing whether or not it is justified.</p>
<p><strong>This article was amended on January 10 to reflect that the figure of £37,000 is the average expenditure per head of cabin crew rather than the average salary.</strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70950/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geraint Harvey receives funding from the European Transport Workers' Federation/ European Commission. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Turnbull has worked with the European Transport Workers' Federation on projects funded by the European Commission (via the Sector Social Dialogue Committee for Civil Aviation). </span></em></p>Despite performing the same job, one of BA’s three cabin crew fleets earns far less than their colleagues.Geraint Harvey, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Relations and HRM, University of BirminghamPeter Turnbull, Professor of Management, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.