News from The Equality Trust (November 2020)

We hope everyone is safe and well and we hope to bring some cheer into your lives with encouragement that the movement to tackle inequality just keeps on growing!

Building the movement

This month Wanda has been active, as ever, with a variety of talks and a number of media appearances. Wanda appeared on Talk Radio, highlighting the fact that 7 out of 10 of the children in poverty are living in households where at least one parent is in work. You can find a clip here. Wanda also appeared in ‘Equal Britain?’, a 30 part series for talkRADIO investigating equality in the UK. You can listen to her story, from working class to middle class, here.

We were also delighted that Wanda was recognised by the sector on 12th November, with the award for Top Social CEO, run by #SocialCEOS. The judges included Polly Neate, Simon Blake and Ruth Ibegbuna.

More recently Wanda delivered the Durham University Global Lecture, the theme was Why We Should All Care About Inequality?

November is equal pay month: Join us and campaign for change

November is equal pay month in the UK. Friday the 20th November marked Equal Pay Day, the day in the year when women effectively, on average, stop earning relative to men. Here are five things you can do to combat pay inequality:

Ask the CEO of HSBC to commit to fair and transparent pay practices. Template letter can be found here.
Listen to, and share, episode three of Inequality Bites on pay inequality with Mary-Ann Stephenson.
Speak to your colleagues about your salary. Remember: pay secrecy only ever benefits those at the top!
Use our “lifetime loss” calculator and share your results.
Put forward a motion on equal pay at your trade union. If you’re not already a member of a trade union, now is the time to join!

New Equality Trust report on gender pay

We are very proud to present our latest report on pay inequality titled UK gender pay gap reporting 2017-2020: patterns and progress. This report, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, reveals the paltry progress on reducing the gender pay gap over the three years of company reporting, alongside an increase of 179% on the average gender bonus gap of reporting companies.

The report received press coverage in The Independent here and here, in the Guardian and Wanda spoke to LBC’s Andrew Pierce about it as well as appearing on LBC News.

As part of our Fair Pay FTSE work, funded by the Friends Provident Foundation, we have also created a Data Dashboard, where you can see how well, or rather how badly, FTSE 100 companies are performing in terms of pay inequalities. You can find out the CEO pay gap, gender pay gap and gender bonus gap at the UK’s largest companies and their subsidiaries.

Young Equality Campaigners

To mark two years since our Young Equality Campaigners met with the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, we have launched this animation – an external animator’s interpretation of some of the audio from this meeting – produced by our friends at Each Other. This film has been created as part of our Schools Resources project, to engage young people in thinking about how social and economic inequality impacts on their lives, and to start crucial conversations about the solutions to high, entrenched inequality. It does not represent the actual event or the participants.

The animation reminds us how incredibly powerful it was for 25 young people from different backgrounds to speak their truth, share their stories and show each other solidarity in the face of extreme levels of inequality. Holistic youth work was intrinsic to the success of this. Lawand Omar and Ami Kourouma, who both attended the meeting, have written this essential article on the devastating impact of cuts to the sector, and highlighting its importance in working towards a more equal future.

Several young activists also participated in the recent Institute for Fiscal Studies roundtables – passionately and honestly bringing their lived experience to support academics in shaping the Deaton Review, crucial research on inequality in the UK – echoing the meeting of two years ago.

Inequality Bites: The Equality Trust’s podcast is live

Episodes 1,2, and 3 of our new podcast series Inequality Bites are now available to listen to on Apple Podcasts, spotify, youtube or whichever podcast provider you use. So far we have heard from Equality Trust co-founders Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson in episodes 1 and 2, with Mary-Ann Stephenson from the Women’s Budget Group appearing in episode 3. Kate speaks about the continuing relevance of the The Spirit Level and Richard discusses The Inner Level. Mary-Ann takes us on a tour of gender pay inequality and discusses how women’s work is woefully undervalued. The podcast has a focus on seminal inequality issues past, present and future, but also discusses solutions.

Episode 4 will be live on Monday 30th November with Sophia Moreau looking at her lived experience of pay inequalities.

#CrimeNotCompliment: Young Activists stand up.

A group of our youth activists are supporting Plan International’s campaign to strengthen the law on street harassment – #CrimeNotCompliment. This is an area of social inequality that particularly impacts on young women, with 2 out of 3 having been sexually harassed in public. We are proud that two of our youth activists have offered to share their experiences with Plan International’s media team, demonstrating the importance of the human stories behind the statistics in strengthening this vital campaign.

Become a part of our team and fight inequality

We have extended the deadline for our two current vacancies, with more jobs coming soon. If you are passionate about tackling structural inequalities, then we want to hear from you!

We are currently looking for a Local Groups Organiser (Birmingham based), an Administrative Assistant and also recruiting into the new post of Senior Media and Communications Officer. Please visit our vacancies page for more information.

Campaign to enforce the Socio-Economic Duty grows momentum

The Equality Trust has long supported the introduction of the Socio-Economic Duty (SED), Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010. From our early day motion in parliament to our work with partner organisation Just Fair on the #1forequality website, we have always argued for its power to reduce inequality.

Recently our SED campaign has been strengthened by a call to enact the Socio-Economic Duty from the newly launched Inequalities in Health Alliance, a coalition of nearly 80 organisations, convened by the Royal College of Physicians. In polling carried out for the IHA, of those surveyed, 78% agreed (50% strongly) that all parts of Government in each part of the UK should have to consider the impact of their policies on people who are less well off. In the same week, we saw the Baroness Doreen Lawrence’s review call for the commencement of the SED and the Equality and Human Rights Commission is also supporting this. Furthermore, our friends at Compassion in Politics are working with Debbie Abrahams, MP to introduce a Private Members Bill to introduce the SED.

You can read more about the SED, a short, but vital part of legislation, at Just Fair and on our own website here.

Local Groups update

Cambridge: Growth Beyond Reason with David Plank

Cambridge Commons continues its excellent speaker series with the latest event hearing from former local government CEO David Plank. David discussed why high growth in Cambridge is driving people out, driving prices up and harming our environment.

To keep up to date with all things Cambridge Commons, follow the group on Twitter, Facebook or via the website!

The U.S. election and the prospects for reversing extreme inequality: Catch it if you missed it now

On Tuesday 17th November The Equality Trust and our Local Groups were joined by Chuck Collins and Sarah Anderson for an in conversation webinar. From the Bezos Billions to COVID19, via the 2020 elections conversation was varied and always insightful.

You can watch the full event here. To hear more from our partners across the pond, Chuck and Sarah, sign up to the inequality.org newsletter or visit the excellent facts section of the website.

INEQUALITY RESOURCES

LATEST BLOGS / COMMENT / RESOURCES

Wanda appears on Talk Radio: 7 out of 10 of the children living in poverty are living in households where at least one parent is working..
Living Wage Week 2020: The importance of everyone having the rights they need to flourish by Misha Nayak-Oliver.
Where Is My Household Rubbish-Recycling Energy Box? Guest blog by Equality Trust co-founder Bill Kerry.
Inequality and University: Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson appear in the Letters section of The Guardian.
The Innner Level book of the month at SOAS Feminist Economics Book Club: Sign up here!

KEY DEVELOPMENTS AND REPORTS

New resource to help health and care service providers reduce health inequalities for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities
Protecting Essential Workers from Pandemic Profiteers: Billionaire Wealth vs. Community Health from IPS.