The UK should seek to close gender and ethnicity-based pay gaps by 2030, according to the interim report of an IPPR commission on economic justice. The Commission calls for the development of a ‘just economy’, based on falling average working hours, rising employee productivity and better work-related physical and psychological health.
The next stage of the commission’s work will look at:
The commission is also exploring ways of giving employees a greater stake in the success of the organisations in which they work, for example, through greater profit sharing and employee ownership. Possible mechanisms for this include
According to an IPPR spokesperson:
‘We are looking, for instance, at the possibility of establishing a “right to buy” for employees when companies are sold, and providing stronger investment support for co-operative and mutual firms, for example, through a specialised arm of the British Investment Bank.’
The Commission is also looking at ways to raise wages in the public sector, particularly in low-paid parts such as social care:
‘there may be scope, for example, for linking public sector pay to economy-wide productivity improvements.’
The final report of the Commission will also look at the structure and level of the national minimum wage, and at the regulation of the so-called ‘gig economy’. According to IPPR, the British economy is not generating rising prosperity for the majority of the population. Economic growth no longer leads to higher pay: the period from 2008 to 2021 will be the longest period of earnings stagnation for around 150 years, it argues.