The EU has published a new report on living and working conditions in the EU member states. The focus is on wage and so income distributions.
The summary chart might be considered to be this:
Of this chart the report says:
The UK is remarkable for its polarisation: it accounts for a very significant portion (nearly half) of the top 1% of wage earners in the EU, and yet it also has a substantial presence in the bottom two quintiles.
In fact this is the message of the whole report. Take these other, selected quotes:
The share of employees who changed jobs in the year used as reference for the income variables is 8% (ranging from 14% in the UK to 2% in Romania).
We appear to have less job security than average.
And:
The results show a general increase in wage dispersion over the past three decades in most European OECD countries, especially the UK and some Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries such as Hungary and Poland. By contrast, wage inequality narrowed in France and Spain
So wage inequality is increasing here.
There was significant variation across Member States regarding inequality trends. The most common pattern was cyclical: wage inequality increased up to 2008 and decreased afterwards. In many eastern European Member States, wage inequality consistently decreased throughout the whole period of 2004—2011, whereas in some Member States (Austria, Belgium, Denmark and to a lesser extent Germany) it consistently increased. In France and the UK, wage inequality rose in the period before 2008 and continued to rise afterwards, particularly in the UK.
The UK is an outlier. That cannot be by chance. It isn't, as the stats show:
According to the analysis, the level of wage inequality in the EU as a whole is below that of the US and the three most unequal countries in the EU — Latvia, Portugal and the UK — when wages are measured in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). The Gini index for wages in the EU as a whole is 0.346 (for full-time equivalent wages measured in PPP), while the comparable measure for the US is around 0.4, and in the UK, the most unequal EU country, it is 0.404. The majority of EU countries have Gini values for full-time equivalent wages well below the overall EU figure.
The UK is the most unequal country in Europe and this is at least in part as a result of what has happened since 2008.
I suspect it will be much more obvious by 2020. Which is why I will continue to argue for a better deal for those who need it in the UK.
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the inequality in the uk is not a good thing , it makes peoples lives so bad . people should strive to be like romania and latvia where inequality is lower and get a better life.
Latvia is one of the most neoliberal countries in Europe. Most bad banking is done in their ultra lax capital.
Romania is outrageously corrupt.
Britain has many problems to overcome but those two places are not where i would look for solutions.
These sorts of ‘piss-take’ comments are indicative of how a portion of our populace wallow in self-protecting put-down ‘humour.’ A prerequisite for a neo-lib mind set.
i refer to Chris’s malevolently intended comment!
I was told from when I was a child that where the US goes this country always follows, with a five year lag. Not sure whether the five years holds, but “follower” status certainly does. Matching (passing) them on inequality ought to fill our government and their puppet masters with shame, but will instead be seen as a measure of success. How warped is that.
Very
In a word
In Naomi Klein’s recent book “This Changes Everything” her central theses is that the environmental issue is the very thing that can create (re-create) meaningful work. Not much sign of shifting the economic models in order to allow this to happen.
The fall out in terms of poor mental health/drug abuse is palpable.
I read your website and am so interested in your view and commenters alike. Unfortunately I do not understand much of it but I get the gist. I was born in 1940 my children in the 60’s. My observations lead me to believe that a Tory government is the political wing of rich landowners and class divide is second nature to them, a countryside especially in Lancashire where I live constantly losing hen harriers, depicts them perfectly, sorry is this a libellous remark. Labour lamely emulating conservatism, they are neither one thing or another.
Walter Greenwood’s wonderful gem of a book ” Love on the dole” I fear, still resounds. A civilised caring society is not a weakened society,it is a place we should all aspire to. Naive, perhaps.
Not naive at all
And yes, hen harriers are a symbol of that contempt for people and nature
Sylvia, as Richard notes your point about the treatment of hen harriers about sums up the relationship between the Tory party, and this government in particular, and the majority of the population of our country.
On a more upbeat note, and as I assume you are a nature lover, here in my home town we have a nesting pair of peregrines in the middle of our city. The chicks – all four of them – are doing well, as you can see for yourself if you follow this link.
http://www.ntu.ac.uk/ecoweb/biodiversity/falcons/
I like that
No peregrines here….but buzzards, red kite and barn owls when doing a bird watch race on Sunday
Wonderful. Shared planet, if only. Sorry Richard, turning your site slightly askew.
“If this trend continues a few more years, it will be two lost decades, which means an entire generation has gone by with no net new jobs created. This might be somewhat permissible if the population had stagnated or declined, but with 40 million new people, it sets the stage for a national disaster”
http://www.dark-bid.com/end-of-meaningful-work.html
I agree: this is vital
Our most precious , the young , failed. Of course technology has replaced so many, but the need to fight our corner is incredibly important. Probably the most regressive step the coalition took was the 2012 health and social care act, dismantling and unravelling anything compassionate. Prohibitive further education costs. A rich tapestry of life, I think not. When I was first married I had envelopes with actual money in them for the gas, electricity, mortgage/rent etc. what was left over was to live on, whisky bottle for sixpences,
Cue the violins. Perhaps the next step really is another planet as prof hawking has suggested.
http://noalternative.org/2012/11/23/on-being-working-poor/
Osborne’s Gini in the bottle. From first glance the distribution of full-time equivalent wages 2011, is telling (Fig. 6). The difference between the population-Average and Median wage is largest for UK data and a clear index of a gross inequality amongst its working population compared to other countries. The latter, more robust, statistical analyses quotes the Gini (and Palma) index is worst for the UK, than any other listed UK country. Conclusion “UK wage inequality [is worst] and grew very rapidly after 2008”. How might these figures look if zero-hour contracts and part time work are factored in, the median wage would fall again.
Oh, for one horrible moment I thought you were referring to Osborne Gin – one to avoid as an enthusiastic partaker of mother’s ruin.
The stock answer in Tory land will be ‘Oh, it’s only Europe – so what?’.
The ECB will help Europe obtain their own English ‘miracle’ in due course.
I suspect Richard won’t like the following comment but given the report’s references to Eastern European inequality, I will restate my opinion that the injection of one million eastern Europeans into the UK labour market was the last thing many low wage Britons needed (coming on top as it did of unprecedented levels of migration in the previous seven years – New Labour’s gift to business in return for grudging acceptance of the minimum wage). Eastern Europe has been bludgened with the same neoliberal propaganda as the UK and now has populations which not only passively accept low wages and a pitiful social security systems but defend them like Stockholm Syndrome victims. Ask any Eastern European migrant – particularly the Poles – what they think of our welfare state and poorest citizens and prepare for Daily Mail style rhetoric.
The sad irony is that not only is free movement ramping up competition here, it’s also enabling ultra right wing Eastern European governments to outsource their unemployed and to avoid setting up proper social safety nets.
This, I’m afraid, is what happens when ideolgy trumps reality.
I am not arguing against the need to address immigration
But equally I am not pretending I know all the answers
As I said after the election, the real issue facing the world at the moment is not left v right but corporatisation/globalism vs protectionism/nationalism. Neither are particularly attractive, but there is a real challenge there for any party thinking of fighting the next election. The EU referendum, for example, will see all the big political parties, business and the unions all in favour of staying in, and UKIP and a few Tory MPs who you would ordinarily regard as fruitcakes in favour of leaving. TTIP won’t even be front page news.
For the wealthy, globalisation is a win/win. People will migrate to wealthy countries, pushing up the price of property and pushing down the cost of labour. Goods get cheaper due to a lot of the factors of production (child labour, workers paid a pittance in China, environmental damage) taking place out of sight, far away. If wages ever look like rising, immigration will keep them down, so tax receipts won’t rise, so social care can’t be paid for. Inflation is permanently depressed, but more debt needs to be taken on, effectively to subsidise corporations who do not need to pay their local workers a living wage. The whole thing looks like a death spiral to me, and no politicians have grasped the issue yet.
Basically, the globalisation agenda – seen as a force for ‘lifting all the boats’ – raising everyone’s living standards – has not worked in the way it was promised.
It has been exploited to provide cheap labour for big business so they have moved plant abroad. It feels like the immigration issue has been used by business to bring that exploitation home (various research might counter this) but in low wage rural Derbyshire I hear frequent accounts of established workers being undercut by cheaper Eastern Europeans. However, these accounts might be tinged with racism.
There is a lot of abuse in Derbyshire concerning the minimum wage though – it is not really enforced in any way that I can see.
I see it slightly different, as its reality that appears to trump ideology. With regards to the free movement of people within Europe and evaluating the pro’s and con’s it has probably done more harm than good.
European leaders ought to have used the mechanisms available to them to develop the poorer nations prosperity by encouraging inward investment instead of what we have had is the richer developed nations capitalising on this growing market by exporting their manufactured goods.
There should be a long term strategy that would promote the internal development of their own economy, this may have a detrimental effect on the growth of larger economies in the short term due to their products being uncompetitive but long term with the increased wealth and prosperity of the poorer nations the detrimental effect would be revered.
The corollary of no free movement of people is no free movement of capital
Of dear……the exporting of decently paid jobs to these poorer nations is actually called ‘inward investment’ James in the country who gets those jobs.
It is rich nations capitalising on such investment in the first place.
As long as the governments of these nations accept that their people are going to be paid less, it will continue to happen. But it will still be called ‘inward investment’.
There is also plenty of narrative about the role of corruption in these deals between business and these sources of labour.
Meant to add-in as a comment in @6.05 above:
“What has happened in the UK is that we have become a society divided against ourselves. Left and Right are both weak, and in parliament almost identical. The older hate the younger, seeing them as feckless, when working culture has changed entirely. The working poor suffer, and stew, and grow angrier, and do nothing. Those on moderate incomes despise the poor, who they see as benefit-scrounging cheats. The working rich see their success as down to themselves, and devil take the hindmost, for have they not sacrificed much — as contractors, they can be hired and fired at will, unlike staid long-term-employee types. Almost everyone sees things as a matter of individual choice, rather than systemic failure and historical consequence”
What a dreadful scenario, but it is happening slowly and insidiously. Whilst those who wish to rule have their eye on the gravy train, a few exceptions, many of us, myself included get on with our lives and in some small way protest, letters to the papers and such.
I guess this is not enough. TTIP must not happen, good demos around Europe against it and here. Whilst I gave out leaflets for a couple of hours it was remarkable how little is known by the public. Secrecy surrounding the deal. My passion is the NHS, being a retired nurse and watching a fantastic service shrivel away by death of a thousand cuts pains me. Tap into some polite but persistent protesting.
Are we disheartened, yes!
To clarify my point, it appeared to me that before the crash, smaller European nations were building up vast quantities of debt buying products and services from the larger richer nations. For Europe to succeed we need to export wealth and prosperity throughout not have the position we have at the moment where just a few nations are benefiting from the project. To achieve this Europe will probably have to become a federal states of Europe, as it would need major political power to achieve a fairer more equal Europe.