Effectiveness of government measures

• Furlough, introduced in 2020, aimed to tackle economic inequality that came from covid. Furlough would pay 80% of workers wages if they couldnt go to work due to covid restriciton. Furlough can be seen as being effective as unemployment rates peaked at 5.2% when they were predicted to peak at 10%

  
  

  However, furlough eligibility excluded people that were on 0 hour contracts and people that are self employed with fluctuating wages

  
  

  Furthermore, 80% of low paid workers wages may not be enough to cover their basic needs.
• 11.7 million employee jobs were furloughed through the scheme, at a cost of £70 billion.
• Equalities Act of 2010 was created to prevent discrimination in the workplace and makes it illegal to discriminate against workers on the basis of protected characteristics such as Gender, Religion, Race, Sex etc.
• Protected characteristics

  • Gender
  • Religion
  • Race
  • Sex
• In 2016 Asda stores were found to be paying women less than men for working the same roles as men, this was taken up in court and was upheld by Court of Appeal judges in 2019
• Lawyers representing the store workers say depot workers were paid between £1.50-3.00 an hour more
• The Equalities Act of 2010 doesn't tackle the root cause of the issue as 54,000 women are forced to leave their job every year due to pregnancy
• Despite the legislation prohibiting gender discrimination in pay and employment, disparities in pay between men and women persist in many industries and sectors
• The gender pay gap for all employees was 14.3% for all employees
• Baby Box

  Introduced in 2017, aimed to tackle inequality from birth by providing a box of essential items for new parents
• Baby Box scheme

  • Provides all families with the same set of essential items for their newborns
  • Levels the playing field
• Items in the Baby Box

  Clothing, blankets, diapers, and educational materials
• The Baby Box scheme ensures that all newborns, regardless of socioeconomic status, start life with the basics they need
• Since 2017 the uptake rate for the Baby Box was 98%
• The Baby Box scheme may not address the underlying socioeconomic factors contributing to inequality, such as poverty, lack of affordable housing, or inadequate access to healthcare and social services
• The Baby Box scheme costs the government £8.8 million annually
• Minimum Wage

  Introduced in 1999 to tackle wealth inequality by providing a baseline wage for those in the lowest paid jobs
• The Low Pay Commission stated that 2 million workers have benefitted from raises due to the Minimum Wage
• 75% of the 2 million workers who have benefitted from Minimum Wage raises are women
• Women make up 60% of the lowest paid employees in the UK (5C's)
• The introduction of the National Minimum Wage is expected to benefit women more than men, particularly those who work in the 5 C's — catering, cleaning, clerical, caring and cashier
• The Joseph Rowntree Foundation states that the National Minimum Wage does not pay enough for a suitable standard of living, stating that a person needs to earn £29,500, under current rates of the NMW it does not pay this
• The National Minimum Wage has not solved gender pay inequality as the gender pay gap still stays at around 14.3%