There are more low-paid workers in the UK than in other advanced economies

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Explaining the data

This data is taken from the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development database via http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=AV_AN_WAGE. Figures are for 2012 and 2013, and are the most recent available for each country. More detailed figures on UK employment are available from the Office for National Statistics ‘jobs statistics’ at http://ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl=Job+Statistics#tab-data-tables

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Top bosses pay increases are way out of proportion to company performance

Britain's top executives are supposed to be paid according to how their companies perform - but pay in recent years has increased far more quickly than performance.

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Explaining the data

Explaining the data: This research was carried out for the High Pay Centre by Incomes Data Services. You can see the full report at www.highpaycentre.org

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The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. What a surprise!

Between 2007 and 2013, cash benefits paid to the richest fifth of the population increased by 42%. For the poorest fifth, benefits fell by 5%

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Explaining the data

Here we have relied on a dataset produced by the Office for National Statistics. This data tracks the effects of taxes and benefits on household income over time. The series runs from 1977 to 2013 and is available here (table 14a). These figures are produced based on the average amount of cash benefits, original income and gross income received by households across the income distribution. We have rounded figures to the nearest whole number for clarity, but for accuracy the bottom, middle and top income quintiles of the income distribution saw an average real-term change in their receipt of cash benefits by 4.6%, 3.3% and 41.6% respectively. Calculations are based on RPI deflation

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Pay for top bosses is growing 5 times faster than for ordinary workers

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Explaining the data

This research was carried out for the High Pay Centre by Incomes Data Services. You can see the full report at http://highpaycentre.org/pubs/new-high-pay-centre-report-performance-related-pay-is-nothing-of-the-sort

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Poorer Children are already disadvantaged before they even start school. Differences in income hinder children's progress from a very young age

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Explaining the data

Academics analysed a group of children at the age of 3 and 5, comparing their school readiness and their reading age. They compared the average score for each income group, ranging from the richest fifth to the poorest fifth, to the overall median. In each category, Children in the poorest fifth averaged a score that was well below the overall median, while the richest fifth were significantly above the median. So, for example, the average 3 year old born into the richest fifth of the population scored 63 (meaning a score higher than 63% of all children) for school readiness, while the average score in the poorest fifth was just 32. Obviously, the median for all 3 year olds was 50, below the richest, but above the poorest. This chart is taken from Professor John Hills’s book ‘Good Times, Bad Times: the welfare myth of them and us’ published by ‘Policy Press’ in November 2014.

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The myth of social mobility in the UK: the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor

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Explaining the data

This data is taken from a study by Miles Corak, Income inequality, equality of opportunity and intergenerational mobility, published in The Journal of Economic Perspectives, volume 27 number 3, pages 79-102 

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Poorest 80% of population have seen their share of incomes drop since 1979

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Explaining the data

This chart is taken from Professor John Hills’s book 'Changing Lives, Welfare State. Why we really are all in it together’ published by ‘Policy Press’ in November 2014 The figures are taken from earlier analyses by Jenkins SP and Cowell F 'Dwarfs and Giants in the 1980s: Trends in UK income distribution' (1993) and Adams N, Carr J, Collins J, Johnson G and Matejic P, Households Below Average Income: An analysis of the income distribution, 1994/95 to 2010/11(2012). 

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The poorest half of the UK population have less wealth than the richest 1 per cent

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Explaining the data

This data is from the Office for National Statistics ‘Wealth in Great Britain, Wave Three’ report covering the years 2010-12 (the most recent period for which data is available). The report can be found online at http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/was/wealth-in-great-britain-wave-3/2010-2012/index.html

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Poorest regions in the UK are poorer than anywhere in Northern Europe

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Explaining the data

This data was produced by Eurostat, the data agency of the European Union. They measured GDP per head in regions across the EU, taking into account the different prices in different regions. The full data is available from http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/1-27022014-AP/EN/1-27022014-AP-EN.PDF. We have classed the countries listed above as ‘Northern Europe’ because they are our nearest geographical neighbours and are commonly considered to have similar levels of prosperity as the UK (unlike countries in Southern Europe or the former Soviet Bloc). As members of the EU, Eurostat provides comparable data for each of these countries.

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Most people think significant pay differentials unfair

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Explaining the data

This data was taken from polling carried out by ICM on behalf of the High Pay Centre. Though polling results depend on how the question is phrased, when asked if they agreed that “pay gaps in the UK are necessary to encourage people to work hard and take risks”, just 32% of respondents agreed, while 55% disagreed. Therefore it is clear that a majority of people think that the gap between those at the top and low and middle earners has grown too large. The results can be found at www.highpaycentre.org 

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Pay for everyone, including middle income earners, has fallen since 1994 - except for the rich

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Explaining the data

This chart is taken from the Government’s Sustainable Development Indicators published by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in July 2013. You can read full publication online at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/223992/0_SDIs_final__2_.pdf

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The poorest regions of the UK are the poorest in Northern Europe

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Explaining the data:

This data was produced by Eurostat, the data agency of the European Union. They measured GDP per head in regions across the EU, taking into account the different prices in different regions. The full data is available from http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/1-27022014-AP/EN/1-27022014-AP-EN.PDF

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Incomes increased for the richest last year, but fell for everyone else

The richest fifth of the UK population saw their incomes increase by £940 in 2013. But incomes were down by £250 for the other 80% of the population... and by £381 for the poorest fifth.

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Explaining the data

This data compares the ‘equivalised disposable household income’ for 2011/12 and 2012/13. It was published by the Office for National Statistics as part of ‘the effects of UK tax and benefits on household income 2012/13 study.’ ONS have found that the recession did have a small effect on reducing inequality, but it now looks as though inequality maybe set to increase. The figures are available online via http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-333039 

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Increasing family incomes improves children’s achievement in school

Raising household incomes by £1,000 would lead to better outcomes for poorer children than spending an extra £1,000 per child on schools

 

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Explaining the data

Academics from the London School of Economics analysed over 30 different studies from across the world measuring the effects of income on children’s school achievement, cognitive development and other health and social issues. These studies found an improvement of between 5% and 27% of a standard deviation in children’s cognitive outcomes associated with an increase in their families’ income equivalent to about £900. This represents similar value to the estimates of an increase in £1,000 spending per child on schools. To read the full report, visit http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/does-money-affect-childrens-outcomes

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Poor children do worse at school - because they are poor!

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Explaining the data

Academics from the London School of Economics analysed over 30 different studies from across the world measuring the effects of income on children’s school achievement. They found an increase of between 5% and 27% of a standard deviation on a child’s ability to learn resulting from an increase in income of about £900. Even assuming the lower 5% improvement in cognitive ability per £900 spent, this suggests that increasing the income of Free School Meals children to the UK average (at a cost of around £6,000 per child) would halve the difference in Key Stage2 test results (aged 11) between Free School Meals children and the rest. To see the full report visit http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/does-money-affect-childrens-outcomes

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Differences in income between children are increasingly likely to be mirrored as adults. Social mobility worsening in UK

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Explaining the data

The Institute of Education used data from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) of children born in 1958 and the British Cohort Study (BCS) of children born in 1970 to compare the association between parental income and adult income for each of the cohorts. For the children born in 1958, the IoE found that just under 30% of the differences in incomes in childhood are mirrored in what they earn around the age 40. For those born in 1970 this has gone up to around 40% of childhood circumstances being reflected in what they earn in adulthood. There is no more recent data, because funding to study a cohort of children born in the 1980s was scrapped, but findings from a cohort born in 1991 should emerge in 2020. To see the full report visithttp://repec.ioe.ac.uk/REPEc/pdf/qsswp1401.pdf

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Most of the UK's wealth belongs to the richest fifth of the population

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Explaining the data

This data is from the Office for National Statistics Wealth in Great Britain, Wave Three report covering the years 2010-12 (the most recent period for which data is available). The report can be found online at http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/was/wealth-in-great-britain-wave-3/2010-2012/index.html

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The poorest households spend nearly four-times more of their income on fuel than the richest

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Explaining the data:

The chart is taken from household energy spending in the UK 2002-2012, available from the Office for National Statistics via http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/household-income/expenditure-on-household-fuels/2002---2012/full-report--household-energy-spending-in-the-uk--2002--2012.html

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