Employment charters: a potential tool to challenge inequality?

Emily BallInequality

Emily Ball and Ceri Hughes explain employment charters; what they can achieve, their limits and Oxfam GB’s hopes for an employment charter for Greater Manchester. More than half (7.4 million) of the people in poverty in the UK are in working families. Concerted action is required if we are to take on this long-term trend but one way to begin …

Future skills: Helping women get along in the job market

Caroline Tosal-SuprunGender, Participation and Leadership, Women's Economic Empowerment

Caroline Tosal-Suprun reflects on a recent workshop, co-developed by Oxfam and the Co-operative Bank, as part of our work to improve women’s access to work in the UK.  uture Skills is an Oxfam project tackling poverty in the UK. It places women from marginalised communities as volunteers in one of our high street shops for six months. Through the programme, …

The gap widens between the UKs national living wage and the real living wage

Amy HillInequality, Living wage

It is ever more clear that employment is not an automatic route out of poverty in the UK. In this blog, Amy Hill outlines the difference between the national living wage and the real living wage and explains how Oxfam GB is committed to ‘decent’ work for a decent standard of living.  igher minimum rates of pay were recently announced …

Understanding the position of women in the UK labour market

Graham WhithamInequality, Living wage

Graham Whitham, Senior Policy Advisor on UK Poverty and Inequality, introduces to some of the key findings of the recent report, Women, work and wages and the UK. he labour market position of women in the UK has been generally improving, with higher employment rates and increases in earnings. However, on these measures, women still fare worse in the job …

Inequality and division in the UK: Ensuring the economy works for everyone

Graham WhithamInequality

The UK is one of the most unequal nations in the developed world. This blog highlights the nature of poverty and inequality and calls on Prime Minister Theresa May to ensure that employment offers a route out of poverty. lobally a consensus is emerging that more needs to be done to halt rising economic inequality. Twin goals to reduce poverty …

Decent work for low paid workers: a job to be done

Francis StuartInequality, Living wage

As ‘Decent work for all’ is one of the SDGs, understanding what decent work means in context is important. Here, Francis Stuart talks about the new publication ‘Decent work for Scotland’s low paid workers: a job to be done’, what people say and how perception of decent work differs from Scotland today.  he promotion of ‘decent work for all’ is …