Age inequality

• The youth and the elderly may experience more problems than the middle-aged, such as social, cultural, and economic exclusion.  

  • Oldest old 85+, young old 60-84  
  • European legislation 2006 made age discrimination illegal.  
• Gig economy  

  • Young people more likely to work in gig economy  
  • 66% of gig workers are ages between 16-30 
  • Partly because of high levels on flexibility around hours- good for those in education.  
  • No basic rights- no holiday pay or sick pay which leaves them disadvantaged  
  • Pressure to obtain employment due to little other choice.  
• Brinkley et al 

  • Young women more likely to be employed into low paid, low skilled jobs in 2012 than 20 years ago  
  • Dominant ideology assumes teenagers will be education, so employers are less keen to employ them for full-time positions  
  • Government doesn’t pay unemployment benefit to 16–18 - reinforces the idea that they are not fully adult.  
• Arber & Ginn 

  • Older people have low levels of income as they retire 
  • ¼ all older single female pensioners are living on low income 
  • Older people make significant contributions to the economy via unpaid work 
  • E.g. caring for grandchildren and volunteering for charities more than any other group.  
• MORI Survey 

  • People nearing retirement report being side-lined and put out to pasture which affects their earning potential in their final years of employment.  
• Gannon  

  • Older women are doubly disadvantaged in the workplace  
  • Seen as ‘past it’ in terms of their economic value and ‘past it’ in terms of their sexual and reproductive value.  
• ONS (2019) 

  • NEETS= Not in Employment, Education, or Training 
  • Number of young male NEETS has increased in last year whilst the number of females has decreased. 
• Resolution Foundation 

  • 1/3 of young people lost work due to Covid-19 in 2020 
  • 18-24 years old= 24% furloughed, 9% lost job  
  • 40-44 years old= 12% furloughed, 2% lost job 
  • Shows how they are more vulnerable to variations in the job market.  
• Minimum wage  

  • Young people earn less and have less wealth stored than the rest of the population  
  • £5.28 = under 18 
  • £7.49 = 18-20 
  • £10.18 = 21-22 
  • £10.42 = 23+ 
  • Lower wages make the youth more employable but disadvantages them in terms of income.  
• Independent (Sept 2018)- Based on ONS findings 

  • Millennials have been economically disadvantaged 
  • Earning significantly less than they were predicted 
  • Half of 16–17-year-olds expected to earn £35,000 by age 30, £25,000 without a degree. Average salary of a 30-year-old in 2017 was $23,700 
  • Lower wages and fewer chances at career progression than previous generation due to growing up in the post-financial crisis era.  
• Garrod   

  • Many young people aged 16-24 are NEETS which makes it easy for companies to offer zero hours’ contracts as they have no other options and are unemployed in larger numbers 
• Abrams   

  • Women working minimum wage jobs are exploited through not being paid for all the time they spend at work, such as breaks/training, nor are they given the necessary tools for their jobs- called these unethical practices  
• Mac & Ghail  

  • Crisis of masculinity in Britain- men confused about their ‘proper’ roles and identities.  
  • Mass unemployment in traditional areas due to de-industrialisation 
  • Increased numbers of young men with a criminal record, girls overtaking in academic achievement, homelessness, and male suicide rates.  
  • Men live 7 years less than women.  
• Feminists  

  • Glass ceiling/vertical segregation- invisible barriers which stop women getting top jobs 
  • 15% of high court judges are women, 10% of top business leaders, 22% of MPs 
• Arber and Ginn 

  • Older women do significant amounts of unpaid work- unpaid childcare for grandchildren & volunteering & housework & emotional work  
  • Their wages do not reflect the hours they put into the economy  
• Dodd 

  • High levels of discrimination for Muslim women who wear hijab- less likely to have a job  
• UK Feminista  

  • 30,000 women sacked each year due to pregnancy 
  • 440,000 lose out on paid promotions due to pregnancy- the motherhood penalty/leaky pipeline.  
• UK Women’s Budget Group 2018 

  • Women make up 47% of those in employment but are still mostly in part-time work- making up 73% of this category  
• ONS 2017 

  • Fathers are more likely to look for full-time (77%) than mothers (65.5%) 
  • Shows men’s careers are less affected through having children  
• Alakson 2012  

  • 70% of her sample had chosen to work part time to balance family commitments- however cited the high cost of childcare, inflexible employers and male partners as their reason to work part time  
  • 44% in lower skilled and lower paid jobs than before as the same jobs were not available part time- ‘part time penalty’  
• Gender pay gap UK Parliament 2019  

  • 17.3% in favour of men overall  
  • 8.9% full time, -3.1% part time 
• Sommers (factual feminist)  

  • Earnings gap not pay gap- differences relate to choices and careers men and women choose, not discrimination  
  • Men are more likely to take on dangerous occupations- 97% of all worker fatalities were male, whereas women are more likely to take on caring positions