199 Low pay, higher pay and job satisfaction THIRTEEN Low pay, higher pay and job satisfaction Rannia M. Leontaridi and Peter J. Sloane Introduction Public policy concern over the situation of the low-paid worker has grown as earnings inequality in Britain has risen to unprecedented high levels, and this has been reflected in the introduction of a national minimum wage in April 1999, which was set initially at £3.60 per hour for adults, but subsequently raised to £4.10 per hour in October 2001 and £4.20 per hour in October 20021. At the European level, too, there
39 3 researching the low-pay, no-pay cycle and recurrent poverty introduction Our study was conducted in Teesside, North East England. The participants came from Middlesbrough, the main town of this large, industrial conurbation. Anecdotally, Teesside has been described variously as both a ‘research laboratory’ and a ‘policy laboratory’. It has had a fascination for research because of the speed and scope of social and economic changes as they have affected this locality, and the social problems that these have generated have been met with a multitude of
347 Policy & Politics • vol 46 • no 3 • 347–69 • © Policy Press 2018 Print ISSN 0305 5736 • Online ISSN 1470 8442 • https://doi.org/10.1332/030557317X15072086455899 Accepted for publication 04 September 2017 • First published online 31 October 2017 article Low-pay sectors, earnings mobility and economic policy in the UK Neil Lee, n.d.lee@lse.ac.uk London School of Economics and Political Science, UK Anne Green, a.e.green.1@bham.ac.uk University of Birmingham, UK Paul Sissons, paul.sissons@coventry.ac.uk Coventry University, UK Low pay is a significant
79 5 the low-pay, no-pay cycle: its pattern and people’s commitment to work introduction In this chapter we begin telling the story of life in low-pay, no-pay Britain, as revealed to us by those caught up in it. It has two main purposes: first, to describe the predominant shape of the low-pay, no-pay cycle and how this differed slightly for some participants; and second, to discuss commitment to employment. Thus, this chapter seeks to illustrate the overall shape of the work histories we uncovered and then, with a feel for the processes that underpin it
143 8 ‘the ties that bind’: ill health and caring and their impact on the low-pay, no-pay cycle introduction As stressed at the end of Chapter 7, the prime driver of the low-pay, no-pay cycle was the insecurity of employment on offer coupled with a strong motivation to work and to avoid being ‘welfare dependent’. In other words, the ‘demand side’ of the local economy – the spread and type of jobs that were available – was unable to properly accommodate people’s need and appetite for jobs. Yet this was not the complete story that was told to us in
61 4 the low-pay, no-pay cycle: the perspectives and practices of employers and ‘welfare to work’ agencies introduction The prime aim of the study was to understand recurrent poverty and its connection to the low-pay, no-pay cycle on the basis of accounts gathered from those engaged in this cycle. We also, however, sought to investigate the perspectives and practices of, first, local employers in Teesside who might offer jobs to people such as the interviewees and, second, of those agencies that seek to help people from ‘welfare to work’. We were
Winner of the British Academy Peter Townsend Prize for 2013
How do men and women get by in times and places where opportunities for standard employment have drastically reduced? Are we witnessing the growth of a new class, the ‘Precariat’, where people exist without predictability or security in their lives? What effects do flexible and insecure forms of work have on material and psychological well-being?
This book is the first of its kind to examine the relationship between social exclusion, poverty and the labour market. It challenges long-standing and dominant myths about ‘the workless’ and ‘the poor’, by exploring close-up the lived realities of life in low-pay, no-pay Britain. Work may be ‘the best route out of poverty’ sometimes but for many people getting a job can be just a turn in the cycle of recurrent poverty – and of long-term churning between low-skilled ‘poor work’ and unemployment. Based on unique qualitative, life-history research with a ‘hard-to-reach group’ of younger and older people, men and women, the book shows how poverty and insecurity have now become the defining features of working life for many.
Spanning the United Kingdom, United States and Australia, this comparative study brings maternal workers’ politicized voices to the centre of contemporary debates on childcare, work and gender.
The book illustrates how maternal workers continue to organize against low pay, exploitative working conditions and state retrenchment and provides a unique theorization of feminist divisions and solidarities.
Bringing together social reproduction with maternal studies, this is a resonating call to build a cross-sectoral, intersectional movement around childcare. Maud Perrier shows why social reproduction needs to be at the centre of a critical theory of work, care and mothering for post-pandemic times.
David Etherington provides bold and fresh perspectives on the link between welfare policy and employment relations as he assesses their fundamental impact on social inequalities.
Exploring how reforms, including Universal Credit, have reinforced employment and social insecurity, he assesses the role of NGOs, trade unions and policymakers in challenging this increasingly work-focused welfare agenda. Drawing on international and national case studies, the book reviews developments, including rising job insecurity, low pay and geographical inequalities, considered integral to neoliberal approaches to social spending.
Etherington sets out the possibilities and challenges of alternative approaches and progressive new paths for welfare, the labour market and social rights.
Based on unprecedented empirical research conducted with lower levels of the Afghan police, this unique study assesses how institutional legacy and external intervention, from countries including the UK and the US, have shaped the structural conditions of corruption in the police force and the state.
Taking a social constructivist approach, the book combines an in-depth analysis of internal political, cultural and economic drivers with references to several regime changes affecting policing and security, from the Soviet occupation and Mujahidin militias to Taliban religious police.
Crossing disciplinary boundaries, Singh offers an invaluable contribution to the literature and to anti-corruption policy in developing and conflict-affected societies.
