Two decades of income inequality in Britain: the role of wages, household earnings and redistribution

Belfield, Chris; Blundell, Richard; Cribb, Jonathan; Hood, Andrew; Joyce, Robert

doi:10.1920/wp.ifs.2017.1701

Cited by 36 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Given that most one-earner couples with children are composed of a working father and a non-working mother (85%), the poor performance of fathers' earnings is the key explanation for the difference between this group and other working families. This is really part of a wider story of a remarkable lack of growth in male earnings in recent history (not just fathers' earnings), as is shown in Belfield et al (2017). What this highlights is that this broad trend has had large impacts not just on rates of inwork poverty but on the types of family most at risk of it.…”

Section: Explaining the Stagnation In Incomes Among One-earner Couplementioning

confidence: 86%

“…11 A more in-depth study of the factors that explain changes in income inequality since 1968 can be found in Brewer, Muriel and Wren-Lewis (2009). 12 An in-depth analysis of changes in the 90:10 ratio between 1994 and 2014 can be found in Belfield et al (2017). 1961 1964 1967 1970 1973 1976 1979 1982 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 90:10 ratio…”

Section: Long-run Trends In Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The figure shows there has been a divergence since 2002, with larger falls for working fathers with a non-working partner than for other working fathers. 43 For more detail on this trend, see Belfield et al (2017).…”

Section: Explaining the Stagnation In Incomes Among One-earner Couplementioning

confidence: 99%

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Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2017

Cribb¹,

Hood²,

Joyce³

2017

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The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has supported this project as part of its programme of research and innovative development projects, which it hopes will be of value to policymakers, practitioners and service users. The facts presented and views expressed in this report are, however, those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. Neither are the views expressed necessarily those of the other individuals or institutions mentioned here, including the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which has no corporate view. Co-funding from the ESRC-funded Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy at IFS (grant number ES/M010147/1) is also very gratefully acknowledged.

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Section: Explaining the Stagnation In Incomes Among One-earner Couplementioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Long-run Trends In Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2017

Cribb¹,

Hood²,

Joyce³

2017

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“…Part-time jobs rarely provide a good hourly wage, with ramifications for workers' financial security in the short and longer terms, and hourly wages can be particularly poor for workers employed in lower level occupations (Bardasi & Gornick, 2008;Harkness, Borkowska, & Pelikh, 2019). Much of the evidence for the picture of poorly paying part-time jobs is based on women workers, but postrecession studies warned of lowering wages for male part-timers (Belfield et al, 2017;Bell & Blanchflower, 2018;Nightingale, 2019).…”

Section: The Qualit Y Of Men ' S Part-time Jobs and Occupational mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ungrateful slaves? An examination of job quality and job satisfaction for male part‐time workers in the UK

Warren

Lyonette

2020

British Journal of Sociology

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Research on part‐time work has concentrated over many decades on the experiences of women but male part‐time employment is growing in the UK. This article addresses two sizable gaps in knowledge concerning male part‐timers: are men's part‐time jobs of lower quality than men's full‐time jobs? Are male part‐timers more or less job‐satisfied compared to their full‐time peers? A fundamental part of both interrogations is whether men's part‐time employment varies by occupational class. The article is motivated by the large body of work on female part‐timers. Its theoretical framework is rooted in one of the most controversial discussions in the sociology of women workers: the “grateful slave” debate that emerged in the 1990s when researchers sought to explain why so many women expressed job satisfaction with low‐quality part‐time jobs. Innovatively, this article draws upon those contentious ideas to provide new insights into male, rather than female, part‐time employment. Based upon analysis of a large quantitative data set, the results provide clear evidence of low‐quality male part‐time employment in the UK, when compared with men's full‐time jobs. Men working part‐time also express deteriorating satisfaction with jobs overall and in several specific dimensions of their jobs. Male part‐timers in lower occupational class positions retain a clear “lead” both in bad job quality and low satisfaction. The article asks whether decreasingly satisfied male part‐time workers should be termed “ungrateful slaves?” It unpacks the “grateful slave” metaphor and, after doing so, rejects its value for the ongoing analysis of part‐time jobs in the formal labor market.

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“…The British story becomes more reminiscent of the US story once the intensive margin is incorporated. Belfield et al (2017) have shown that the increase in part-time work among low-wage British men has occurred among single men and those in couples, and those with and without children. Explaining the origins of this change, and in particular whether it represents a demand-side or supply-side shift, is a key challenge for future research given its implications for welfare and potential possible policy responses.…”

Section: Racementioning

confidence: 99%

Income inequality and the labour market in Britain and the US

Blundell¹,

Joyce²,

Ziliak³

2017

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We study household income inequality in both Great Britain and the United States and the interplay between labour market earnings and the tax system. While both Britain and the US have witnessed secular increases in 90/10 male earnings inequality over the last three decades, this measure of inequality in net family has declined in Britain while it has risen in the US. We examine the interaction between labour market earnings in the family, assortative mating, the tax and benefit system and household income inequality. We find that both countries have witnessed sizeable changes in employment which have primarily occurred on the extensive margin in the US and on the intensive margin in Britain. Increases in the generosity of the welfare system in Britain played a key role in equalizing net income growth across the wage distribution whereas the relatively weak safety net available to non-workers in the US mean this growing group has seen particularly adverse developments in their net incomes.

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Two decades of income inequality in Britain: the role of wages, household earnings and redistribution

Cited by 36 publications

References 23 publications

Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2017

Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2017

Ungrateful slaves? An examination of job quality and job satisfaction for male part‐time workers in the UK

Income inequality and the labour market in Britain and the US

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