We email a newsletter to all our supporters, like the one below, rounding up all the inequality-related news for the past month. If you want to get the latest inequality news quicker and sent direct to your inbox, just sign up to The Equality Trust newsletter here. Thank you.
The Inner Level: June 7th saw the publication of The Inner Level (the eagerly anticipated follow-up to The Spirit Level) by Professors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. We were delighted to host Kate and Richard at our fundraiser and launch event for the book on Tuesday 19th June which was a great success and we thank everyone who came along and supported it. There is already quite a buzz around the book. It is noticeable that the book’s exploration of issues relating to inequality and mental health are finding a very receptive audience, particularly among younger people. If your organisation or campaign wants to book a talk with Richard and/or Kate, the details are here.
Helping the Government: We were pleased to see the Government finally publish its plans for pay ratio reporting, something we’ve campaigned long and hard for with your support (thank you). To keep the pressure on, we joined with others in a letter to the Guardian making the point that pay ratios on their own are not enough. We have also been making the point, repeatedly, that the Government should look to the richest in our society to stump up for their proposed NHS funding boost.
Undoing the 1980s: In other news, the IFS reported recently on the state of inequality in the UK. A key point was their very clear statement that although our level of inequality may have broadly flatlined and bobbed up and down a bit in the past 20-30 years it is much higher than it was in the 1960s and 1970s. We need to undo the disastrous rise in inequality that occurred in the 1980s if we are to heal our divided society and tackle the increasing signs of poverty that we see all around us. We must not accept our current very high level of inequality as being, somehow, a new normal. Inequality is not inevitable. We can build a world where all can flourish.
Best wishes, Wanda, Jo, Bill – and welcoming our new team member, Rianna
The Equality Trust Team
STOP PRESS: We are recruiting for a Corporate Campaign Manager: full details here. Please note, application deadline is Weds 11th July (9.00am).
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LATEST BLOGS & COMMENT
Pick of the Month: Pay ratios legislation – action also needed on inequality
– The Inner Level launch event on 19th June
– Equality Trust’s Exec Director on housing and inequality
– Drilling Down to The Inner Level: authors’ guest blog
– Monthly News from The Equality Trust (May 2018)
LATEST LOCAL GROUP NEWS: The groups are getting ready for our Local Groups & Activists Day on Saturday 14th July, for all this and other news from June, just read on…
KEY DEVELOPMENTS AND REPORTS
Pick of the Month: OECD says five generations needed to hit average pay
– UN report warns of looming global care crisis
– Universal Credit puts domestic abuse sufferers at risk
– IPPR says stronger unions can deliver social justice
– CIPD says executive pay detached from reality
– OECD urges action on inequality
– JRF says Universal Credit tipping people into poverty
– UN says US level of inequality becoming dangerous
INEQUALITY IN THE NEWS
Pick of the Month: Crime linked to inequality says senior Met chief
– UN to investigate UK poverty and austerity
– Another victory for workers in the gig economy
– Elderly plus single parents facing brunt of homelessness crisis
– Food banks facing tough summer
– Primary school children suffering hygiene poverty
– Parents using video to challenge sports day results
– Universal Credit not value for money
– Landmark legal ruling on gig economy
– Grenfell anniversary – sorry is not enough
– Poor health caused by unjust society say Scots
– Housing associations selling off affordable homes
– Adult social care services close to collapse
– Homelessness could be ended in a decade
– Carillion collapse to cost taxpayers £148m
– Nearly 4 million adults using food banks in UK
– Persimmon director forgets about £45m bonus
– SNP plan to limit bosses’ pay (paywall)
BEST INEQUALITY READS AND LISTENS
Pick of the Month: Inequality breeds stress and anxiety
– Is it time for a Maximum Wage?
– Posh Boys – book review
– Inequality and toxic stress in San Francisco
– The new American aristocracy
– When ordinary people learn economics
– Lessons from The Gilded Age
– Stark relationship between inequality and crime (paywall)
– The Plan: what workers can achieve
– The Walk: For Richer, For Poorer (radio programme)
– Why rich kids are better at the marshmallow test
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ONGOING SUPPORT!